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:
0499423410
7905427249
0345730596
0605548579
7653735673
0397479434
4195541592
0149401990
8906777780
0557579255
4693943769
0459494590
3853775837
0567071739
6752379260
4795234256
6286444259
2460891760
6223131612
6597886897
8836555388
4307536477
6207160833
6597544274
9297138048
4227806616
6827573495
4767494509
1430631213
9558132256
2339257445
7797197217
3133011305
9454934599
9096499646
3114352413
1694388206
1923397601
8009197606
7366090900
8358999385
0009080699
8741447910
7175797751
8860888006
6561782442
8531733742
9536720578
9330168267
5528151255
1369446369
6936998639
9210791920
7311033010
9725525579
6675587765
8008448980
8081110088
9440810560
8257485769
1770120524
5706778420
1966888560
0445434045
4334854385
2179990521
2515551422
1637630482
1301350542
5002677341
9243544045
3781231025
8880308388
3449848393
4245224250
5256996150
8777099190
5030408890
6853566350
9687446358
5880826280
0034700707
3478558553
9130931931
0732733720
0474987979
9132552916
9771502164
9438740538
9074926287
2387778773
7219210999
3253853322
8374777483
8353740870
5359829054
3277896232
3267741276
5274523139
0842086459
1202692633
1542942707
0546909114
0005770300
3546030343
1302663221
5296999695
9845335893
6401110541
8255458285
6266662626
7895335979
8561304942
6221660141
7806378543
6236356397
7896173962
5884629019
3293516493
3993784944
5295545012
3847538733
4994799974
5873078358
7297691999
0235737533
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
4211484271
5254452425
0516565010
1656939756
5448454455
3419689221
8669864016
0550688976
7369992251
2141303826
1356435775
6575105195
8254035375
3691595136
9195501795
2200260842
3304994390
8733533675
8750555585
3897113777
6415214611
9847190148
6817501975
9447496872
3747719891
3250180330
8797416872
3636363343
2075253297
5570570957
2522156162
7381876957
6917456332
6357266353
9571860373
7520253242
1432290564
8806047066
5096046990
9161670703
8555557502
0935390563
0570050790
7666776674
6977947946
4309212799
0844928983
1251621888
7174477893
1660111609
2227822728
2774272094
8388828883
3736117433
5305136663
9536309058
5136139563
9500013566
0669999056
6699939693
5400936509
6565808566
3277913729
5810504984
5720504157
1828924359
4445892164
8188598153
4777974979
3344222334
9255892598
4613004167
0837478654
0845667155
3448895072
3747382864
3719317379
8435445438
0337664336
8648868688
3868483664
1112292515
0619505615
2225115412
6952956249
4462295515
0289155715
1074312512
0991250741
4661602217
8887181764
3309440439
9899909986
7776575707
8394274711
9670514709
0875005467
3958004737
5264275414
8679100616
8130247120
8289102089
3470160090
3470133340
8289392328
3639836933
8070080000
5199291598
0290390293
9949499445
1777772567
0009779350
8816679340
0953272590
3947370360
2409299307
0559896450
5138294868
6091456310
1794954879
6908254869
6783797860
4846856468
1133116310
6489794768
5529555209
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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