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:
5411121009
1913426049
2426776318
7977706534
7911771111
1467177776
7906474406
2076007070
2423555133
3184631843
1442302054
3347675117
1121984575
1327999293
8446866844
9184298944
3162616224
3321632136
2852283125
8028808280
6820008226
1691916696
2347058220
8141308663
2202458680
8520908266
2265086260
5939631853
6921798459
6082812510
6430149791
6981717979
5922422552
6631163106
0478607440
5060806008
5565566455
1448844282
6747474631
3113398133
2167878652
1363644863
8981404831
5379804853
6859578831
7678875128
9936972570
8001925172
9473871462
0150115590
4122121412
8807178128
6363614963
7171001170
3010259737
0076679437
0460385673
2983253433
3665151653
8545454440
6467486437
7333643637
7777779777
5606664174
7174875188
1570235391
5109235681
5555179155
4624694691
4848845388
2625565264
3317837188
8078227716
8908653160
0111224006
9778942732
0098999899
0902202050
8117471487
3615225212
9770609797
6498017601
7297711057
3088436051
6474436970
9017117007
1255221654
1188116180
7775334571
0020130912
7070020017
8608880826
6328202623
8933939832
0882439017
3862102625
0745320827
7933330826
0871820611
0925885046
6605661411
0622390673
0925369455
6920399030
5676666755
0608306010
0625802556
7925872992
4957994999
7561471475
0840708490
5949199951
4941700820
0117836960
7951787298
1119497631
2910163492
2623514598
4133740598
9844533590
0680294992
0990993007
3485234512
1883313838
9499794798
4040040940
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
9542619514
0951686701
5012825603
5552387148
3032333330
5558445554
9361661166
6913636636
0142504095
8332114449
8483274784
9654276344
7729473144
6768376356
1911117791
7919170179
8311183186
1144004144
0777972317
7852218076
7187518376
9668414087
7082772089
1208114028
5541012015
2727572757
8668648376
1583106976
7206367930
4733727130
9276097733
7767797796
9308328903
4501164130
0000707072
0797903976
8136100100
2186791619
0536232475
2526142751
8530758405
0122821888
4286184824
2057202222
8513251232
7355757375
5311117635
7941192491
7373390307
3393252387
5419496305
7035932405
7694516492
4208939405
9729406628
8199420039
9299342135
6779386913
6759375999
8272378271
6930393630
9729497429
4199499994
6269799929
7727777777
6028288322
7975579777
6925707058
6029744276
7767756799
7065992023
7028480387
4351830498
4151156643
8166051813
8161989298
4153939159
8361001163
7499242494
8056888803
9711414797
5062844643
6633251643
1630071656
0098617063
9575757236
4046004466
3114411643
7252777225
3000540035
6441389250
6394749205
1032659215
9832651375
9377559377
4134141215
5822829258
0994949200
6815181256
7702770772
3983535933
2116818221
3602132133
7103749994
7702192063
3019548109
3902161320
3712989797
3099899903
6632566763
3220420202
3675936735
3629586759
3630881550
5019877079
3090836592
3689474151
3100762487
3059307813
3945482389
4468412454
3599353489
0383410734
2728702787
8578767857
8811288213
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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