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:
3284011111
3592496531
9035114508
4262296812
8893991839
1022444112
6564686544
0111116101
3733771193
3908449833
7828448728
3494644643
8666778796
6666746672
9426483949
8426455993
3621495285
3926486259
4239445798
3908547797
6009347747
5547810794
9099990047
6101641567
1188757178
5598485594
7970910793
0482003830
2495511433
4263103336
4663413710
7997999773
0002004730
9338193810
3613313336
8856485465
3853353833
7267472773
5999225299
0675373535
0677367119
5653674491
0861626334
0199310991
3851342854
3618888167
3073730726
3433355433
9997799774
0060650727
8276158723
3523086223
1759089744
2294799134
5858564458
0449280427
5835232855
9144913494
3893430855
2757913424
1273764458
0080932729
2055182458
6530524870
0594331390
8310267936
6806417586
7377737770
2329063042
3399911399
6336834586
6236220836
8146037929
9621537879
5503177274
6139297274
7887777879
7132737021
2277997234
0300083909
3251717305
2742172853
3282755370
5682716378
3292726098
7221712777
3812017232
5732025733
2692726292
5783157578
3293478058
3102788734
7364012939
1072872031
1109910069
7374884725
6665878658
2131112131
3333303933
6117638931
9259036733
7693180131
5521456116
1701130713
4363464883
6696636906
4531356334
8883183131
6980596060
4688568648
2620777020
2684332466
6692367037
4622523463
4688571750
2682531914
4610793833
0681585641
8233553535
5454455455
1372972172
5677506903
8652923329
0484513606
5674510532
0983539794
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
5979414277
2640894677
9002033171
1932413177
3333393337
7971724177
7747474678
1724714279
4611641661
4262056111
7419657621
4008505681
8391497921
9229999621
7111157111
5955155681
9772997923
5082805832
9031768202
4786745796
9987719848
4011503767
0590779079
9911999991
8086580655
4637336646
9881789868
4557265225
7855365623
8655866222
8158147088
4411114144
8655457585
7587070788
9882889898
8158228555
2850528055
1700110047
4363326300
6353336795
1874016395
5721916705
5314238700
6368328757
8674206797
5530733350
6203121203
1087308373
5563735595
6083180330
3534780373
6083332194
6303775649
1083044227
6491259620
0198115108
7671228206
3391542865
7159577719
9399899333
6632239622
2678122772
3491241224
2219942991
4484418484
3533785733
3013334510
8261812433
9490832912
3327110783
5923180583
4499510531
4775415174
1911444109
6165536156
4816111826
9665231174
7802911222
3558516866
3017086226
5833044224
0520491469
6503681903
5141431849
7808039243
1016991055
9543435409
5523005243
6969989963
1116601961
6657587611
0343488202
6445653276
0605928239
3843993333
1405646196
0677550775
6225222222
1357131575
5410623844
0430815825
8252645885
7331210845
4635515644
0440002849
4244502245
5858223085
7087240827
3903493399
7065402076
4015111511
8027111720
5013140236
8965118695
8925449282
8627420276
3003112269
4267996266
3044743727
8002880280
0117111111
8002549490
0337933744
0102735769
4237903393
8112836036
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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