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:
1491146053
2709850606
9468187155
3599676055
7761179106
9509940159
5730887053
7090573605
4676476946
4436946334
3945155531
2458788525
5903795739
2408104777
5051861324
2448729006
3918135484
2953143099
7779008697
8992890882
9990932096
6633553836
5513893832
5266355845
5498190897
5408600897
7781523896
6212404529
2696702552
2778672037
3835472323
0057370523
7200770032
2233332003
7557774359
0008202347
9348224939
8927004982
2402502024
0515951555
9947902767
8107261079
8528509894
3547096552
9442996905
3128931878
4372763720
0151626828
8777459324
1155353301
5885989580
8668862823
8174741178
8662626724
7890709836
9737918836
4409697976
2079259939
8899198814
8639829836
1319219239
1390101993
5539557294
4905197022
4261106001
9005927548
0000729987
7941919177
4094664640
9605900909
0240772024
4305133184
4331664913
9326559263
7000115097
7699997916
2399294019
4192719016
3414744916
9402045903
5978765216
5375806116
1397306389
6929301996
2980478306
0050575006
6938558196
6666006316
7779878987
6933703679
0592692956
9141594451
4288328482
2495155241
6591528024
9181303689
2192516474
6152180208
4691033122
4433369432
7887787867
0480303084
0511151602
7227057832
7833005460
9134445682
3607304662
7454149022
8890696806
8197997519
0601801861
1181911111
8149922912
0499463961
8641882944
0101798375
0691816134
8941559951
9482649922
4691111169
3877332338
5891348357
5835688794
8836359238
3441619497
9472386599
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
9116372185
9910367873
8956373805
9126949651
5729972792
8699333969
9980990989
9116499914
1421412104
2584972847
3671153858
2547676261
8289876748
9867773268
3818853816
0449606749
9595992458
1917971917
7757857385
7983247829
3755252737
1151515118
6872217155
5770757755
1119539837
6208882783
2274347783
8007005807
2662262897
2156521569
8263332067
2626052567
1572762867
3640832869
5581438197
3707021769
0034130001
3138031333
1265311513
1424551243
1134103803
1234142138
0245890758
1144009557
1044532117
2777553772
3414414604
1281182451
2171119271
6559819251
4094680691
5537523664
3777412672
1887782774
5330355043
7609092067
5585888545
0098194810
4886694060
7558098710
7199197067
2675798016
1789538815
1625969162
7562656636
9376767667
8264774462
1626765486
7275656841
7372968732
8261763502
1315606113
1014873725
6914869036
1954267376
1991705679
1958718871
1091891201
2214222242
4904540495
6314886881
1023021001
4910619019
4728554722
9200191092
4923561761
6028623701
4810661019
4223099962
6720600942
7065557839
6809651531
0256432802
7508619231
9209939209
5150019580
9992322339
9078737807
1117151731
1541091350
4255596425
7378768387
8166912896
0154493497
3492413847
5411991087
5246292385
5381151095
0978079070
0814104811
0107101100
5521912585
0808946527
0824932260
5127185824
5828026100
0908879201
8281756663
4889490891
2335011654
2735547455
4895598959
8734979841
2289798227
8369000086
1731447111
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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