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:
1093434681
3576733881
5520383608
2189272838
4177171472
8338132831
8841994888
3361183651
6826882638
9967258240
9106145838
1100108619
6586101012
7985197797
6568998599
4933133439
1106313676
9560220965
8303118503
2019010042
6353353336
9976776691
4819813696
1160916691
2160650393
3478156367
0162373004
5327399506
9613801526
9644293944
8321947594
9645954994
8314333338
6598288888
3021828430
5687175117
7584486844
6187968717
7706007767
9074799079
7714705892
9774009273
6784470385
9088511055
7716999559
8391331338
3267117267
6691263662
2662777626
3661122614
1267263167
7067772116
3692399081
7067260488
5303780802
5217728008
5211997196
5136787653
5336353616
5111711157
5282982822
9203809388
2019920929
1391737341
0840007795
0923663744
7013654339
5521757721
4014105314
0693363397
4744664744
3333333739
3423640326
0770097301
9626956239
9931331193
7077651231
6330297231
5793350371
4091690213
0258755399
9394779479
2388888883
9613536385
3968393893
0394745744
9344573923
3363542240
2378509191
2363353565
5453755537
0582228202
5386858558
7107778771
5143726538
7107208403
5582291410
5153277154
0497221353
3627772936
6578686865
0102422201
4870550808
2157501528
0872540060
4105650743
4878508060
2877504598
6283786673
7678277828
8440508525
2479333349
7279361864
2640577676
7273734968
1640343130
2488500692
6066660366
8441334184
5552556952
5616557216
9795037813
9414433213
4690584336
8362766853
3039363922
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
2036323003
4031222120
2068222362
2365152216
4331382298
4035307110
2566373046
2438370468
2061358291
3218162671
7217373911
3255249763
7251144978
3211316132
3515211355
6246422444
7751115557
7587388773
9719479797
1228828981
5317333531
5194394359
1274344858
5727305343
5399218774
5897261937
5314214013
9528305817
7340891427
4064355262
3652296272
0612191264
5818258821
5222226452
7857705817
1838313875
1548915974
7775335317
8845446588
9449779294
4322075374
7288772574
1315710527
9487039728
5760516924
9330734781
3199661846
9016921040
9799740135
9300930023
3099600033
9539779339
3712123721
2199099299
2478334217
3941363419
9999690964
8849194981
6077234919
6703830041
5111044011
3915892644
8929064989
6365407803
3167798736
3324295205
6327728697
9697396969
3365733517
6185256518
3884288832
1322777132
9229009260
4111343241
0668604667
8854158145
4988454640
8192558167
9793506147
9336303447
1150843415
4782311143
0463306293
3139345247
5979616257
2593790257
4149141096
7573565753
7772606237
4514115144
1119111299
1116316143
6707687806
9549959571
3827219846
4303966548
3418087273
1195511898
1828117049
9319302319
2202227206
7133180173
3178738781
1647230786
2826720161
3291220713
5328627346
5437402286
4375212409
5274225703
5675230865
0272741589
9757999997
0674247274
5325445552
3272727337
0278280762
9729669532
3131073810
1018888110
5595959095
8055259592
8545983016
0621976510
8400168060
2283959532
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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