Puzzle - First to solve wins
For years I've had an idea in my head about a way to hide some information in a bunch of numbers. I actually got around to coding an implementation and figured I'd run a competition. The first person who figures out what the famous landmark is described by the second set of numbers below and posts the correct answer in the comments wins $100.
The hint
Here's a hint. The following numbers are a reference to the Eiffel tower:
7646467466
8162422642
7786087077
2599953959
7689949524
2746214104
2857980873
7582990247
7789073873
1165576915
2666253622
6964704679
6566596656
2073058975
3693704955
5454673985
3957946959
5713756672
3390339022
0179090591
5656557361
9616911659
6252630599
9727199592
3396431559
0385827729
8594317661
7876651039
2196148189
1962958784
7874729195
3696996499
4170640014
1864116188
7998787978
2862565822
6211111386
9927262709
4166584651
9988998928
7753292689
0406614688
2910914386
3117612397
6073782626
1731333413
0477707404
7932537299
0966393006
7732782358
1731302133
8081503306
7967737000
1977185332
8953339854
9699968949
0800880508
5865557460
2851650448
4249037009
0894688844
2003667541
9554738848
0338330000
7523957732
5680350608
4713999115
4633543745
5533324113
5398587033
0510314264
7598168670
4037216918
0078291201
4277307408
4100367597
0178998100
3306330066
0187281218
4943949444
0030203080
7628386888
2826446446
1628716282
5124751242
1628764063
1623324261
1526456553
7521320395
5524700646
1982659304
8370415083
9411821952
2230218902
0932992083
9802228802
5106551006
4555595324
1319516953
7946843476
7029835162
4966832884
2020126380
4996114929
2087622677
5629859656
7260877608
2009529250
4260942060
7428178728
5886787677
4708994857
5288985379
4408957570
4828968222
4506104835
5280565811
2203123220
0692330006
4773474772
0389393839
4203380861
2773364092
0289372677
2702356331
4103306329
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
0853191276
4497348661
2095548962
1002691671
7666776672
2322353265
7411148191
8778598775
8911551968
1279668835
5762753995
7621662062
3574252645
5958558178
9377272937
0077060097
6641461642
6333333665
2272522757
9525852855
3500535135
5565353365
5562522938
9285822338
3575381246
5285907921
9500331360
0533660306
1026002642
8096990669
3105533355
0095526718
8590531251
3036072497
1035970544
3093956160
5780388008
0350514530
2386497599
9306507979
9380778901
8480303338
5906559559
2359455322
0305605360
9591661956
2662226622
1009190110
8439110981
8469189374
2099514356
2631638064
8039872834
9499173932
3113335316
1466445162
0065515706
1899198179
5376235142
4555825049
3745555042
7345258116
6664755302
1585629570
1298413429
6595276267
1415744782
6947796679
1283811283
6518216824
1495444159
8555485554
4066667460
4970749072
0970601069
3838553683
9511254762
0800837768
7334359013
3713944689
6350937070
4044037400
4734438447
9997772998
5990998079
5167897499
1921278597
9211038878
9649637477
5022218849
0168516185
5068316680
3242819639
9703816681
1986196681
1717115207
9893364139
8863696385
9555619865
4141434105
1143146681
2111112361
9029970129
2691236609
6834611581
2968734386
9578834603
1867654321
8185086560
2229979542
3030110683
3383938893
3233270983
6980279990
4492278543
6052114552
6738774864
5134075887
8124534440
8130549352
8592522549
4577575577
5114772151
8186688668
8892080808
7930559550
Post the answer as a comment below. The first person to answer correctly with an acceptable explanation to how the answer was reached (rather than just a guess) wins $100, so make sure to use your correct e-mail address so I can contact you.
Note #1: People have noted that the numbers change whenever the page is reloaded. That's as expected. This puzzle is not an encryption as much as it is an obfuscation. That the numbers change is not important, as only the pattern in them will lead to the answer, which is of course constant.
Note #2: There was a bug in my post for a short while, which made the hint and puzzle basically the resolve to the same answer. This is fixed now. If you saved a copy the numbers before, just grab a fresh set.
Solved!
The second landmark was discovered by Batuhan Bozkurt, congratulations! The challenge has not yet been met entirely, though so I've decided to set a new challenge with the same method. The same $100 prize applies.
Redditor Bearasaurus has solved the final challenge too! For hints, check the followup post.
Comments
Big Ben
I'm afraid Big Ben is not it. But be sure to include some explanation as to how the answer was reached, so I know it isn't just a random guess.
I "solved" your puzzle, but I assume not in the way you wanted.
After giving it quite some hours, I failed to find any specific pattern (with a reasonable kolmogorov complexity) that would lead me to an answer. But in Reddit, you mentioned that you would be interested in statistical approaches that would lead to an answer (which I assume you are interested for increasing the security of the obfuscation?) so I exploited the fact that your website gives fresh batch of numbers at each reload so I grabbed about 1000 sets (with intervals in between, hopefully not causing trouble to your website, it handled the requests like a champ) and got to cracking.
Now your HTML formatting implies 10x10 blocks of data for each set. So that was a starting point when I first began looking at the problem. The grid is 70 x 20 so that implies 14 secret codes, 7 for each row.
I looked for what was common for each 10x10 block in each of the samples I gathered from your site. I found out that for each 10x10 block some digits occasionally never appears; for example in block 0x 0y, not all digits have to appear but one always appears at least once.
Once I looked at the remaining digits (that are common in all blocks at a particular coordinate), for the "hint", I was faced by these digits:
0485130
0021739
These are the coordinates in the form of degrees-minutes-seconds (dddmmss as you gave away generously in Reddit) of Eiffel Tower.
Once I ran the same process for the puzzle, the result was:
0295845
0310804
Which is the coordinates for the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Maybe this is disappointing, I don't know. If the website hadn't provided fresh batch of numbers, this method would not work. I assume, to strengthen the obfuscation, you could make sure one digit always appears at least once; but as long as the distribution isn't random, I suppose the answer could be extracted.
I've tried many approaches before this; I'm pretty confident that the pattern is not based on neighborhood relationships (as the answer can appear on edges, though wrapping around could be employed but still with it I failed to detect any patterns). I think it doesn't have anything (or much) to do with arithmetic on the digits (like summing / subtracting them). I tried various row/column patterns and couldn't come up with anything.
I also analyzed the 10x10 blocks containing the answer digits only once (so if the answer is 0 for that block, 0 appears only once in that block). But saw no obvious pattern at all. So this beats me in that regard.
If I am eligible for the prize for my answer, I would kindly ask you to donate it to the Doctors Without Borders foundation. If you are uncomfortable about it for some reason, you can choose to donate it somewhere else you see fit.
Thanks for the challenge, and although my curiosity has been partly satisfied, I'm still waiting for the answer that will allow me to solve this using a pen and paper using a single set of numbers.
Batuhan, the answer is indeed correct. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the one I was looking for. The method you used is indeed not the one I was hoping for, as you haven't actually figured out the way the coordinates are encoded into the sets of numbers.
Still, I'm not one to dictate how the problem should be solved. I will make a donation to Doctors Without Borders for $100 in your name and post proof that I have done so.
Since I would very much like for somebody to solve the method, I'm including this static problem for a second attempt, and another $100. Being in a comment, the following set obviously does not change and encodes a third landmark.
2626513077384364666346599932245309032974209496921885110948315551555613
6549028370497764766953274173448611231555969009312435020244378244262894
9308377132331493394457637801172312372974892873367485438142538547446457
5987478672136633636156339295109196283474021313920015080695500005010510
9318473400638833698356337893287640679475088481921818727043921551931599
5758758671181690400516397336912974972974211231362065019596695870416497
1701226107698865022553554534544375771374969996927993180831110067651597
3203310324331357320447629709425333533533932743923435767555759732852649
0008077080336367751344339394399228589625005440340517458583553308156594
7467243472134765226056779555595344734475199118911888022882025906466417
0332300493776667648725560571112261196221231229957486429403779342535143
1366338577707417047142278890548676887286598087756091175002210326130060
5863902088494574497542911473583959753975898054668946115111760583633056
3673921092972792959782223331128568968982838265801286279605628360969080
5301986352763553665223261861393193111359891776463941295493449120391390
0463999640662807648743557375531417213379281451584481179187119326988940
4352555243298062697573961379660934698929891289118894828988929160129317
1871110111741174649945428445570098658283038728302510575750510526949009
3326333663020967498782260828822839081251556075505536114445618120357157
5602990599311067698721073220721651596922796029092045295295550390501233
The challenge now is to find the answer and a step by step description of how to extract the correct digits from it.
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