BUT (and here's the cool thing) the 7 does NOT represent the letter A, the 61 does NOT represent the letter N, and the letter 57 does NOT represent the letter D! The first three letters in our encrypted message are: 7, 61, and 57. Phew! We've finished with our first group of three letters. Then we multiply and add down the third column of the matrix: Now we multiply and add down the second column of the matrix: (the 1, 14, and 4 come from my first group of three, and the 3, 0, and 1 come from the first column of the matrix.) Here's what you'll do with those numbers: you'll multiply and add them down the first column of the matrix.

Let's say your first group of letters (numbers now!) was 1, 14, and 4 (if A = 1, B = 2, etc, then those three letters spell the word 'AND'). Okay, take a deep breath, and let's do this

You're still reading?!? Wow! Good for you. So, if you get easily confused and distressed, you may want to stop reading here. Once you've got your 'encoding matrix', and you've divided your message up into groups of three, and converted them all into numbers, you start combining the groups with the matrix in a way that is wholly confusing and distressing for people who haven't studied matrices. That might be easier, because you're going to do a lot of multiplying, so keeping the numbers small is a good idea. Another way would be to say A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, and so on. One easy way to do this is to use the same numbers that the computer uses (A = 65, B = 66, etc). Now you have to assign a number to each letter/symbol in the message. If you don't have the right number of letters, just add some spaces at the end to make it come out even. Now, if you were going to use this Matrix to encode your message, you would have to group your message into groups of three letters (because it's a 3x3 matrix). A Matrix might be described as a 3x3 matrix if it has numbers in three rows and three columns. But in a matrix code, the letters get changed in groups! So it's much harder to decode the message.ĭo you want a little more information? Then keep reading.Ī matrix is a two-dimensional array of numbers, grouped together inside a pair of brackets. First, letter number one gets changed (into a number, a symbol, or another letter), then the second letter, and the third, and so on. Most of the codes you've looked at here change the message one letter at a time. And if you aren't in high school or college yet, you probably haven't!īut just a simple explanation. I won't go into all the details here, because it is very confusing if you haven't learned about matrices and determinants in your math class. The Matrix Code is a complex method for creating and decoding secret messages.

How to encode a message using matrices