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:
3317175220
3061758576
5103675120
1704051226
8406776480
7777071570
3865221635
4474477184
5652255226
2989955030
2785925632
1618444754
7749326762
7628373637
6345953494
1789663989
1995995999
2611721121
2044509586
6141497396
3798480665
8473560202
8443555484
3298499994
4474744447
2145524114
6771517526
0298189211
8342444220
3570637735
9658393583
8252784602
4352605854
9578184106
2390138665
0592767889
2266026022
3836494363
8882284228
4043313304
8628234362
5379024002
8699426303
3032384303
9112274022
5522752225
3613636136
2646646686
9162797177
3346726390
3665691487
9623336838
3616179639
5545736044
5266323356
5025655605
3535053953
9102999919
5265929454
9266953178
4036281089
4235310440
5135340067
3666434046
7443743733
5677557775
6239999623
7043925724
6667537003
5476410978
6407482086
3646955209
9258268136
9458386699
4856942074
4256322792
4536353334
4652352265
9458398859
7854242678
9256222262
3660263662
5332535352
1654114116
4482994844
2664107225
3552394015
4554959581
1658599221
4662216077
2867509717
8169414912
1838314098
1613099214
2289992278
2676669567
4041004014
2084204982
1707111750
9718016257
8815898087
7977020352
3009090267
6381718267
0555000052
6049990486
2277112367
2155525185
7373337377
2622629256
7444590745
9950758097
0071030355
3944027557
7393830370
5447137376
2965597875
3703252913
7252292397
6979811143
6309292307
3161976913
6499946494
1222722107
3920292323
4133751347
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
1175982567
6274086156
6285909705
2671388251
1291399111
2589985859
4665066465
6174766716
5689995864
1341431414
1151858511
8000880040
4459393343
8400321077
1401836188
8407444043
4101870693
1410442222
8029581619
6311482638
6865180009
0654293238
1512591054
5518805581
3003930239
6066282609
8633333648
6047194701
4759994701
9582092711
3604874404
9117994711
0945444501
4344686743
9148498416
5508778504
5241442148
9359939953
4854844857
0033939305
9615632959
3724839158
8752647789
6913647709
6037549108
5456245738
8462848792
4038047718
4564297752
8983390238
1589818952
4222848712
9994404893
3573337732
0445581072
7185093540
5167196670
6657054277
8720550872
5738783747
4007494270
6665566520
7272441027
3093837752
3586824334
2593005490
2976981152
2685998622
3903000330
2073220270
7596447929
0292809202
1981454131
1338099831
9918378249
4832389423
9932199991
1181811818
4818011001
1937479774
1256325246
0718622694
0064133622
0724161412
0761168256
6131131111
7418613867
8041228081
0714617400
4761266162
5113257573
9270269523
1227362913
6680455513
9377952973
2583885235
7507577508
3633959563
3270162713
3845131548
2265996225
2584888222
4224114844
3825903889
4574168891
3825868679
4261574255
4544178334
2799777994
1105150116
0359309335
5100155107
7821259198
1777259136
0060007927
5505607194
1556147838
0703042083
0162206127
4274720748
7837773487
3039474043
4282256198
0918100485
9789542728
6453076120
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.
Post a comment