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:
3909000369
9969816899
1611181161
9175159781
5931016161
3409631779
1153009391
1820919188
6993180189
9152701269
5759705467
5042128443
9951184255
1938713988
1542744132
9159115199
5971212155
9755157595
2231773211
2999112999
9918987973
5185171850
9753813919
6181762259
4423371450
5814777419
0421882873
8639676076
0255084877
9319978077
2681276725
7676776027
0061669027
9446974986
9117888719
7576556775
1070893759
2617116651
7105196977
6570095811
6734996347
3864363819
3771343771
9791212917
5565155651
1498431403
0598125279
7561443141
0168183627
5551957555
1191591111
2468686428
9498144981
0472444442
9994858094
0575765750
1121002118
3324934849
6675454049
6415932099
7802558610
3266905054
9137605850
1278928711
5268222526
8015714771
5921959925
0069927529
8521992279
5469930639
5578776619
5228746610
9817599988
3317113137
0744547405
2728778722
2727728012
0394539003
9310184200
3317714429
3617511382
1448994788
4493545459
0040504400
9031511911
0446985934
0838656229
9016543399
4040648034
1018503383
2382503531
2962132436
3182388045
3273500827
3273111323
3162566553
2387332272
7382323077
5978444547
0918344058
7797777239
5030442256
6623677264
3665558633
0020412024
5852777254
4666444366
8118111238
2328622618
6938639996
7287171288
4905393495
4225305767
6937263434
4327260093
2227153800
1987695038
6792136292
9749632736
6329659829
2019232235
2252552822
3638336239
1221661295
3693565931
9967749769
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
8224725004
2469545908
4068540009
4477237901
7917110971
0495945904
6750227569
3355335358
5112025001
2043535609
6206939751
4524030551
5888279679
6110130601
5105030055
5751775581
5003035590
7076709679
0397279220
9217912717
5605050566
5363775077
6243940665
5397221789
5117973669
9067977957
5305945749
0606600666
7717334179
8858868581
9991199159
8948299151
9015874131
3818803689
6263994639
4941268179
4475003865
9484372705
1755957183
9205340548
1279372711
4105655434
1415911911
4785757485
9434043004
3383891823
3354848337
2999397932
0555152160
5133617823
3948452330
1140396730
3111198873
9250858720
3101222301
9978919879
9972990592
1486118846
7553499596
8896299872
2251192543
9054069309
0728398876
2703924342
0762654206
5692552665
0503927114
2211712727
4102000010
0782507242
5593953355
2668986228
6005834668
1083853144
1333025561
7772054444
1959559491
0566335601
8893323868
4741446174
4444224444
9740711263
6425890563
4794590569
8345415266
3116311263
9396699486
1223214223
2952120519
9895595285
1226397409
2020025404
1393981008
2073819168
1133119436
7857675761
9811881199
1924221409
7669097068
0680379458
4877019346
5380604796
7382345447
0237770000
7672662661
4320042333
5781015081
3830333303
3997636789
0005404508
4764684616
1121111028
8523831516
2063614313
7327424983
2496114619
1692634688
3460145088
6043639867
3544441088
6143893424
8848333868
4400001054
8904894087
0010440011
4033205423
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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