Dancing Men cipher

What the Dancing Men cipher is

Dancing Men is a symbol substitution: every letter has one figure, every figure one letter, and the message is a row of figures. The figures are little men in different poses, arms and legs at different angles, and on the tables used for Codebusters there is a figure for each of the twenty-six letters followed by one for each digit from zero to nine, thirty-six in all. Some of the figures hold a flag. On these tables the flag is part of the letter’s figure, not a punctuation mark, and the words are separated by a gap in the row.

The cipher comes from the Sherlock Holmes story in which a series of chalked stick figures turn out to be threatening letters, and Holmes breaks them by frequency, guessing that the most common figure is E. In the story a figure carrying a flag marks the end of a word; the tournament tables do not follow that rule, which is the one thing a student who knows the story has to unlearn. Several figure alphabets exist, since the story shows only part of one; the table that comes with a message is the authority for that message.

Decoding is matching. Write the alphabet under the table’s figures if the table does not print the letters, then take each figure of the message in turn, find it in the table, and write its letter beneath it. A gap between figures is a word break. Read the result back as English. If a word is wrong, the figures to check are the ones that look alike, especially pairs that differ only in a flag or in the angle of one limb.

The mistakes come from reading quickly. A flag read as a word break splits one word into two and loses a letter; two figures that differ by a raised or lowered arm are easy to swap in a hurry; and a table printed without letters, as some tournaments do, is misread when the student counts along from A and skips one. The habit that prevents all three is to letter the table first, slowly, before touching the message.

How to solve a Dancing Men cipher

Each letter is a little stick figure. The table that comes with the message shows one figure for every letter from A to Z, then the digits 0 to 9. Some figures hold a flag. The flag is part of that letter, not a sign that a word has ended.

1. On the test's sheet the letters aren't printed. The first figure is A, so count along.
2. Before you start, write A to Z under the table's figures on your scratch paper.
3. Match each figure in the message to the table and write its letter underneath.
4. A gap between figures means a new word starts.
5. Read the letters back. If a word looks wrong, check the figures that look alike, like the ones holding flags.

A worked example

Worked example

The message: two figures, a gap, then five figures.
Matching each one to the table gives H · I, then T · H · E · R · E.
The gap splits the words: HI THERE.

Dancing Men in Codebusters

On the elementary Science Olympiad Codebusters papers OlyPrep has read that include it, the Dancing Men table is provided on the resource sheet, so the question tests reading rather than memory. The Macomb rules name it that way. With the table in hand the work is mostly matching, and the main way to lose letters is the flag, which a student who knows the story reads as a word break and so splits a word in two.

Scoring is usually by the letters of the decoded message, and a decoded quotation with up to two wrong letters is commonly counted as solved. The time cost is the matching, so the practice that pays is familiarity with the figures themselves: a student who has seen the table thirty times recognises most figures on sight and only looks up the few that resemble each other.

The lab below draws each challenge as figures and carries a Show the table panel beneath it. The panel opens with the letters hidden, as some tournament sheets print it, so the student counts along from A; a Show letters button turns them on. A gap in the row is a word break, and Reveal writes each letter under its figure. The table on this page, above, shows the letters throughout.

Practice the Dancing Men cipher

The lab below is set to the Dancing Men cipher alone. Pick a difficulty, generate a challenge, decode it, then check your answer or reveal the solution. It runs in your browser, needs no account, and is unlimited on every OlyPrep plan.

Where the Dancing Men cipher is tested

The Science Olympiad rule sets OlyPrep has read that name this cipher:

• Macomb Elementary Science Olympiad (Michigan) — on the Codebusters list; the table is on the resource sheet

Cipher lists change with each season’s rules; a tournament’s own rulebook is the authority on what it tests.