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:
2967262689
6461414166
9523922333
4895757845
6463929275
9465771395
9567291587
7969798205
4465405383
7789697977
1760671666
6804104686
6713574761
6713989238
1784984696
1780600811
1003609936
6712574122
5848415535
0847631680
9200505845
8848186794
5240150020
0137600167
0848588888
8108080088
8880480388
1014818237
9253946492
1552219903
1513147723
1014911999
9013191100
9314294111
6592050092
1252882226
1321159056
1819284850
5873586826
5322272029
8982956829
4333676935
3003634086
1115151151
8801282120
8768868724
2929216922
0109179160
0494533405
5578078422
4707026125
0708576900
4531143129
3760329405
5840016499
1308653025
5108427102
5348765905
2348737873
7040047477
1836016038
5108658760
5540404545
3580296628
5966877023
0566737126
2339471063
0933794733
6637676673
1800001438
6367707063
6636239626
0145273115
9145202034
4258223004
7158721304
4755755575
7048204428
0145000160
9179779979
9153259595
8175918543
1776198551
1971118749
9199212338
9999999359
2946392631
1424412843
8805808558
6867818726
7080170821
4444141784
4466494646
6682336622
4679096824
2595736622
0417271482
9121376774
8972974726
1043610081
7193824087
4058810186
4356524436
4943559343
4058656409
8326666326
7187881181
1148888411
9160554747
3132586595
2230596808
9132387369
3266732337
9489999989
6192555226
5130353534
2235757223
3718337385
5624726264
1956666596
2007552770
1056582880
5318276787
6918662269
3939631402
1734562734
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
1467464221
6764657640
1114147192
3351158531
9420854202
2149958531
9510067608
1797158101
9388258234
8627686786
1482944824
9431191143
6066556605
1562983398
1425631792
8582978445
9686578533
1455892593
0283908200
4073534021
0273938744
0853501362
0073553757
4868998608
0803800808
4286042662
5253555555
7129628651
5157511693
8883178355
5152764424
7413537377
8122621642
1379131117
0057770505
5863555853
2223929322
5864356343
2860020256
5359193531
2826120261
5343356949
5394894685
5869033936
5149171426
4556640173
9510709542
3560312261
4566387241
7562333362
3259739523
1516665566
1535811311
4930830478
5650666655
0085338308
1331013103
9072777770
2081524129
1085505790
5070941655
5375517814
2085327553
4705355533
2412222244
3637876678
3183998933
4131384885
9612911036
4157833150
4703809394
4183328628
6767737627
3283225318
4684717464
3019191093
5447411093
0533217345
6870232627
6208927173
5398541013
4337080793
4344414473
7981897881
6618116886
2509215881
4615196871
1014316083
3885695481
1728986393
1864056285
8668380268
3295090046
7268345439
7499797999
8998088090
8268111118
1854985991
3667366066
4444262708
4846240684
0684278118
9584784079
6640550560
0454204244
9134797773
0581255551
4436244256
8102420462
7508412254
7620149741
9406146163
0126515521
7580487505
8428448484
3688184668
9209199091
5749997495
1255221522
1255021555
4786777777
1786780368
5245414554
1745951339
2245088765
1749781492
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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