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:
8683388688
6940545564
8728338882
4395334393
8320566118
9380510599
8745380056
8395341000
8483502035
5576215932
0676982981
0331041852
2516528583
5316551353
1888086088
2571275775
0691404040
0536956699
6474171170
4681816884
0214717741
0590757507
4270741255
4518344718
4494134371
6686353188
6911139848
5615542280
4035485715
7635265091
7485705781
5537773577
0517600716
1058408808
7694541746
4485544484
4777176591
3356136551
4345434455
5353556683
7018276455
6076259521
1055786593
0882139583
5733979521
9746878847
4443444474
8969698999
8690556958
0243589435
9246875751
0202485095
8469568435
4976675733
3349933393
6578888815
5493539595
3181138118
5588787311
5442874595
3888780002
5591126960
3393899188
8131212821
1453313543
2223522335
0420339303
0123523880
2179223305
2229391996
3473340134
2423384326
0072718370
3163612670
3436456140
7778456641
1191316391
5056665670
1291252191
5000114070
6666696646
3232070323
7691917949
4666449706
4147774019
0469610729
4284479609
5343370319
9448477479
3327680979
8833030151
8125036170
5143377465
5781349118
5131915319
8324032234
7343233332
0633000506
5785378858
1478777144
0062220265
1434140341
8582558632
8148895194
3160998142
2100145295
4302140632
4147193147
9080890098
0007750007
9549409845
5090999026
0893659026
1321797007
9103390028
3095449096
1523409398
9277684451
9277110638
2257124198
9997503400
9877119791
0397555075
9236636632
2901199149
0947677660
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
3520816220
5395737272
7382136271
9558496230
4224117242
7136136175
6266246226
1179917791
9533399330
2373226232
5254525554
7525770525
3988938889
0265638832
5822725659
8280327558
2675636382
2117026209
1891051105
6326232406
9735952815
4976835480
5055555003
5534433425
0611441016
6670860980
2552822805
1557258904
3220952287
4736602934
5132057904
7400797064
5334454430
6555555964
2250002107
8228202287
7804505281
7915845234
7705168149
9865581514
1009191191
3934934349
9462886669
5815287288
7103513500
1115255211
2375725378
2267220617
5531117535
4132210078
7411820358
3140425618
5514327275
1664005537
1914902762
5880262747
9545164842
0031892216
6860552806
6624232264
2808808812
3670663847
2997792732
6488648686
9000008807
3933930395
0153150301
9271472395
2586250301
4547400601
3767750366
0928532295
4145427265
4294969294
9135089353
9125106705
1167911771
9125454199
9942141791
4224824448
1495045044
8646641670
2641406471
2616578957
8662323526
8671373682
1365463434
2646774624
2916519225
8662668626
3936914498
1492418434
2078005115
4528615936
4338338436
8399905798
9549554995
3363333064
8111114168
7112222127
4944589654
0170436104
8834334831
1160477906
8081129631
9406137154
5161236106
9187437244
2812582122
0553553535
2788273782
0362733673
3368784401
3562290734
2852254461
3582641725
3956570660
7225792621
7125410298
5973710834
3165984651
7028992820
3108441136
0925797727
0065466504
7273022037
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