E-I-E-I-O Teacher Version, student version below
Core Standards 7.SP.1, 2, 4
Random sampling to draw inferences about populations, and informal comparisons between two
populations.
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a b c d e f g h i j k l mn o p q r s t u v w x y z
Graph A
Graph B
The two bar graphs above represent the frequency that letters occur in two languages, one graph
represents the English language, the other represents the Spanish language. Teachers: do not identify
which plot comes from English and which comes from Spanish. That is a question students will answer
below.
1. Which 3 vowels and 3 consonants occurred most frequently in the language represented by Graph A?
Write the letters in order from most frequent to least frequent.
Vowels: e, a, o Consonants: s, r, n
2. Which 3 vowels and 3 consonants occurred most frequently in the language represented by Graph B?
Write the letters in order from most frequent to least frequent.
Vowels: e, a, o Consonants: t, n, s
3. Use the graph to estimate the frequency of the letter “a” in each language. Find the difference
between the two.
Graph A: about .125 Graph B: about .08 Difference somewhere between .03 & .04
4. The most frequent word in the English language is the word “the”. Based on that hint, which graph,
A or B, represents the frequency of the letters of the English language? Explain your choice.
Graph B. The “e” is similar in frequency, but the “t” & “h” are much more frequent in Graph B.
Graph A is the frequency of letters from the Spanish language and Graph B is from the English
language.
5. The following frequency plot is a sample of the frequency of letters used in the first two paragraphs
of the book “Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony”, by Eoin Colfer, written in English. Since the graph is
from a sample, the frequencies will vary a bit from the overall letter frequencies of the English
language. Compare the book sample to Graphs A and B. Which graph is the book sample most
similar to, A or B? Explain your choice. The frequency plot was created on the weblink “Practical Cryptography” at:
http://practicalcryptography.com/cryptanalysis/text-characterisation/monogram-bigram-and-trigram-frequency-counts/
Graph B is the most
similar to the
book sample. The bar for the letter “t” is distinctly taller on the book sample and also on Graph B. Also
there is a big difference in the heights of the bars representing “e” and “a” in English, and less difference
in Spanish. The letter “h” is fairly common in English, but not in Spanish. “W” shows up fairly often in
English, both the book sample and Graph B, but not in Spanish.
6. Cryptograms are puzzles where a symbol or letter is substituted for the actual letter. Each of the
Artemis Fowl books has a cryptogram at the bottom of the pages of the book, where symbols are
substituted for letters, and readers are challenged to solve the hidden message in the cryptogram.
One tool that people use to solve cryptograms is by using letter frequencies. The three most common
symbols (in order) from the book “Artemis Fowl: The
Lost Colony” are:
Which letters do they represent?
E, T and A
7. CHALLENGE QUESTION: Use letter substitution to try to solve this famous quote:
YJMIR SKCN MRKCDRMU; MRXS LXIKVX YKNPU.
YJMIR SKCN YKNPU; MRXS LXIKVX JIMZKQU.
YJMIR SKCN JIMZKQU; MRXS LXIKVX RJLZMU.
YJMIR SKCN RJLZMU; MRXS LXIKVX IRJNJIMXN.
YJMIR SKCN IRJNJIMXN; ZM LXIKVXU SKCN PXUMZQS.
--WJK-MHX
Hints for the cryptogram puzzle:
I=c
R=h
S=y
L=b
Y=w
L=b
H=z
J=a
K=o
Solution:
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
—Lao-Tze
Questions? Contact:
Joyce Smart joyce.smart@loganschools.org
Chelsea Parrish chelsea.parrish@loganschools.org
Name ____________________________
Class Period_____
E-I-E-I-O
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0.08
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a
c
e
g
i
k
m o q
s
u w y
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a b c d e f g h i j k l mn o p q r s t u v w x y z
Graph A
Graph B
The two bar graphs above represent the frequency that letters occur in two languages, one graph
represents the English language, the other represents the Spanish language.
8. Which 3 vowels and 3 consonants occurred most frequently in the language represented by Graph A?
Write the letters in order from most frequent to least frequent.
9. Which 3 vowels and 3 consonants occurred most frequently in the language represented by Graph B?
Write the letters in order from most frequent to least frequent.
10. Use the graph to estimate the frequency of the letter “a” in each language. Find the difference
between the two.
11. The most frequent word in the English language is the word “the”. Based on that hint, which graph,
A or B, represents the frequency of the letters of the English language? Explain your choice.
12. The following frequency plot is a sample of the frequency of letters used in the first two paragraphs
of the book “Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony”, by Eoin Colfer, written in English. Since the graph is
from a sample, the frequencies will vary a bit from the overall letter frequencies of the English
language. Compare the book sample to Graphs A and B. Which graph is the book sample most
similar to, A or B? Explain your choice.
13. Cryptograms are puzzles where a symbol or letter is substituted for the actual letter. Each of the
Artemis Fowl books has a cryptogram at the bottom of the pages of the book, where symbols are
substituted for letters, and readers are challenged to solve the hidden message in the cryptogram.
One tool that people use to solve cryptograms is by using letter frequencies. The three most common
symbols (in order) from the book “Artemis Fowl: The
Lost Colony” are:
Which letters do they represent?
14. CHALLENGE QUESTION: Use letter substitution to try to solve this famous quote:
YJMIR SKCN MRKCDRMU; MRXS LXIKVX YKNPU.
YJMIR SKCN YKNPU; MRXS LXIKVX JIMZKQU.
YJMIR SKCN JIMZKQU; MRXS LXIKVX RJLZMU.
YJMIR SKCN RJLZMU; MRXS LXIKVX IRJNJIMXN.
YJMIR SKCN IRJNJIMXN; ZM LXIKVXU SKCN PXUMZQS.
--WJK-MHX
Hints for the cryptogram puzzle:
I=c
R=h
S=y
L=b
Y=w
L=b
H=z
J=a
K=o