Puzzle - How to Make a Warp Drive

Image by djvstock

 This blog post contains a puzzle, one which you, the reader, will have to solve (there’s no getting around it). At the end of this post, a question is asked. Post your answer in the comments section (as well as any comments or questions you have about this post). 

However, you only have one chance to answer the question (so check your answer over first!), and please don’t ask for the answer. It will all be revealed, along with the first person who successfully answers it, in my next post. Also, even if other people have already answered the question, post your own solution anyway; theirs may be wrong.

“What’s this story about? Is the puzzle easy, and is the solution logical?”, you ask? Well, why would I spoil it for you. As for the second question, this puzzle will be extremely hard, and yes, the solution is most certainly and entirely logical.

Sounds easy, right? Well then, lets begin...

This story is 100% fake. What I am about to tell you never occurred. It is all just good, imaginative fiction.

Ominous, right? Well here it is:

I am a chemist at a certain research center. The research center in question and it's location are both confidential and not important. What is important though, is my work. Normally, it would also be highly confidential, but a certain incident which occurred at the lab recently makes it worth telling.

Let’s see... I should probably begin with what I do. I am part of a team of physicists and engineers whose task is to create a warp/hyperdrive.

Yes, yes, I know. According to Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity, nothing can go faster than the speed of light (which for your information is 299,792,458 meters per second in vacuum). But there are a few problems with traveling at the speed of light.

If you were somehow doing so, then what would feel like only a few seconds for you would be hundreds of years on Earth. Additionally, even though the speed of light is pretty fast, it would still take many years to reach other solar systems (the closest star, Proxima Centauri, would take about 4.2 years to reach).

So, it is impractical to travel at the speed of light. The best bet we have for traveling to the stars is to not travel in ordinary space. In other words, use a warp drive.

This all may sound pretty ridiculous, but it's the most practical and efficient way we can think of. Also, we need the technology. Now. It’s 2051. Earth is overcrowded and even though we have some colonies on other planets (ex. Mars), we need more.

It is also a delicate time period politically. The nation-states of Earth and the outer colonies are working towards becoming one unified government, and this has made us vulnerable. The various groups are still deciding on the laws and rules in the new government, but recent talks have become increasingly heated. Some groups don’t trust each other and others want their people to have more power in the new government.

The only way to create the new government while avoiding all-out war, which could destroy Earth, is to create a technology to explore deep space. With this technology the most economical way of exploring deep space, which everyone wants, would be to form a United Earth/Solar System. The technology would cause rivaling factions to work together in the new government.

However, there is an obvious problem with this. If one group gets their hands on the technology before anyone else, they could use it to gain power and possibly control the new government. Because of this, my team’s mission is to develop a warp/hyperdrive (depends if you are a Star Trek or Star Wars fan; personally, I prefer warpdrive and Star Trek) in absolute secrecy. We have to present our results to the interplanetary council.

Well, when I say absolute secrecy, I mean that we tried to have it. We always had a vague suspicion that someone was spying on us, and recent events have only confirmed this notion.

Initially, we were absolutely stumped on how to create a warp drive as none of our ideas held water, but we kept going on for fear of what would happen otherwise. However, about a week ago, one of our top scientists, John Ray, called me and said that he had an idea of how to create such a device.

Naturally, I was excited and asked him to come to the center as soon as possible. He said that he would try to arrive in an hour, but 4 days passed and there was no sign of him. To my and my colleague's shock, on the fifth day he suddenly dashed in holding a manila folder, a gun, and trailing blood. He hurriedly shoved the folder into my hands. A second later we called an ambulance. One minute later he was dead...

Now I know what you’re thinking, “John must have discovered how to make a warp drive. Because of that, a spy trailed him and tried to steal his design plan. In the process, he killed the spy, but was injured. To find the design's schematics, simply open the folder!”

Well, not quite. After examining the contents of the folder, we determined that John did indeed figure out how to make a warp engine, but needed to come to the lab to work out the details and make schematics. He knew that someone was trailing him and he couldn’t let his idea fall into enemy hands. Regardless, he needed to deliver it to us.

Because of this, he ultimately decided to hide his idea in a puzzle. Thinking back, I’ve realized that John always did like making and solving puzzles. We guess that the contents of the folder are clues to his idea. He probably meant to make the clues only as a precaution in case he died, which has sadly happened.

Anyway, my team and I have spent days trying to decipher the contents of the folder and figure out what John’s idea was, but to no avail. The interplanetary meeting where we will present our idea is in four days, and if we aren’t able to do so, all-out war could start.

Because of our desperation, we have decided to do the unthinkable. Share the puzzle with the public, in the hope that someone will be able to solve it.

We contacted the writer of the great blog, Books, Boardgames, & Music, and have asked them to publish our story.

Here the are contents of the folder. Please try to solve it (feel free to refer to reference charts and if you must, a calculator). The future of human civilization depends on you.

(Don't pay any attention to this story, it is entirely false. Only, any ideas?)


To create that which we hold so important:
I + II, run through III, direct results through a nacelle (IV, lined inside with V).
 
2.) This one is simple. Just take the anti of 1.). 
 Hint: Matter can be divided into two groups.

4.) In the way in which computers encode text (in 16s):
63-68-72-6F-6D-69-75-6D-2D-74-75-6E-67-73-74-65-6E-5F-61-6C-6C-6F-79

1.) Of part 1, look to Dimitri’s chart. There, choose that which is with others, yet alone, similar to others, yet kept apart. Multiple types of this, there are. Pick that which is equal in the three groups.

3.) For 3, back to the Great Chart you must go. Look now for what is the first of its type, that type being the sibling of what is of Earth. Once that is found, take two of it, which share a negative. Your answer, a molecule, must it be.

5.) Finally, again to the Great Chart. Choose that which is equal to x + y, where x and y are the solutions to the following system: