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:
7364161667
5487255517
4557555577
0422999492
0587521577
5888945902
5457181937
5394534405
4354545881
2642414744
4369595524
8571504554
9921414524
9599995522
2032204723
7337739797
5454404544
1821211254
0595432818
2131448981
7163238934
0691522845
0632553333
0965959669
2193413932
4851881618
7031277012
5679977577
9980298297
8933438338
3194939993
9933985248
9939973815
5634977659
8724957182
5873411625
1222427737
6105410592
6281396131
7071729439
6981777788
4123443412
7042742704
9275057937
1704301133
1511112172
4229121974
1115615613
8822332288
1011612172
8884921173
0510145974
8645215912
4341112124
3809116064
7199544387
8295238135
8409568408
9781197191
7799399873
5105255002
3465245646
8239585995
1274441353
2575813068
1207738193
2507727235
2574337323
0935403043
1508755881
7947774797
2268862648
4062005527
4500105556
2847405919
2431897159
9982192515
4115164115
9522985529
5955505957
8727727822
4144481440
4979494674
3468674638
4306110843
3840214454
5098711833
4977514474
3682084465
9272611630
9649564549
1821282510
6700101270
3404336403
6286437243
9737682210
1321901560
8870631583
4381062543
5475539533
8052431966
8317876986
7226637752
8085979580
3429497734
4413431954
9696797816
6362326362
7972272724
0673337056
5295259220
3903330392
5866876392
3397572025
6701930724
4926776020
2137839322
7885858087
2765604675
9095500959
2212313223
6523618679
3184403687
8992404955
2252413525
9307908995
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
5157921945
9710557755
5085856368
0382450244
1595551968
6963956944
5571057015
3500771350
0200020200
2692829922
5032835205
2793442313
2353753222
5357186608
2627901429
2797141251
2532889647
2697127532
2226269422
2669965296
8288727885
6335556377
8785456497
9169565874
7734667795
0569665727
1188765885
5294578112
0966879762
9265878101
8157238182
0930939009
7778774782
0444777142
8232638266
6668188861
5286969525
4040003465
2777287242
3335737375
5785837465
7189777365
1701063265
1737467545
9786728365
2711532489
9776501538
9136291514
3666782418
1736511155
9771557511
3156211062
6661716666
1411311411
2085099555
0275027561
4376123618
4288165596
7385151538
8278887888
4885844884
0031000310
6496090396
6846468461
9992229921
3657636736
7332732785
6331239965
1605634861
5798184725
6642566625
2009532481
4406475525
1986469188
8108716303
4184165442
6116717717
1788988988
4504454544
0960160069
4403943743
3278887888
8537388873
2586751528
1325135235
2376380463
4534888104
4742191016
3584830478
1775873295
2338883288
7333833682
5758678465
0199930091
4680215669
0051968215
6441715619
0673133391
2055735265
3881111111
2577005202
0717277177
1990919909
2504961187
6500034686
3787780949
1894248701
0784911350
8064688184
1218489187
3010852110
0003257137
9755957987
8681888116
8883389133
0667068080
5991951194
7528488286
3535168376
9614082093
6634128976
7134713337
0635109000
3518055538
9523493242
6871161711
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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