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:
2342823005
1697813871
5947676094
5692545511
1397513117
5722072255
1694819114
5942666966
8348111048
1932876799
5992507236
1905522472
1536365580
1906596169
0537600577
1395813515
5552355550
1600606661
9519518371
9543009438
1385111825
6913019428
8718772871
2232009322
3328523528
1988898885
1143411438
3154887899
4955427869
9031361084
1100211886
0801110804
1061116166
9957967599
0411021014
8948484689
8989898798
5902202495
2288888249
2626592635
8384692299
1608688699
9864188449
3231608645
1391988692
7917919261
2472078093
7472513735
1412524029
7934979738
2897477789
7412524442
1174114717
2842224284
1615820426
4758452097
1615424779
8625922863
8626110286
1625454216
4618964811
1055757510
4711611746
3453848830
4959353499
1577751757
9367773629
1478853489
0036073357
3765941730
7107959886
5360158727
8723367328
8407370436
5636563545
2818598125
2170678443
0099700525
0073490123
1523773145
3401060543
3903862446
2270556489
6462766296
3080252140
1119930119
6699466490
6666262066
3300033200
7365556047
5247957259
5558955593
9952695229
9619511196
9752924724
9953523641
9252925261
5782658798
9989616030
0950712328
0902326839
3237354717
0612766531
9107310037
7655755655
0830333080
3973669039
2912442221
3353959533
7066777670
1084040817
5440997804
3736057839
8752787803
4451856613
3880199528
4397859679
4711304525
3682329195
8404999073
9689508517
4414334444
0111901910
3789579759
9609390999
8988887898
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
0094604659
9577739075
4392994253
8838178212
5456274202
4304833655
4223939279
2143694213
5052438655
1808032810
0262227126
2616707621
5977997515
5469437524
2711487515
1147002814
9475227524
6197257510
6303963303
4970291247
5041754555
8526336325
8546722123
6329089187
8326770988
5973301767
6541779287
6020279707
2966676797
9455099703
1288899707
5969756798
9924679764
9597796775
8777878987
7702772204
2512010502
0851959180
8046046906
6197117117
0855926749
2537924090
1292161743
0097123225
8356981892
9606602368
5595550599
6226526852
1001990120
8886070322
0013052528
4783600620
1576820159
0789296322
2748862872
8335978593
6506505166
9919930991
7811870562
2072732872
1365060893
5453310992
4144642891
1045951547
0048240820
6528228528
4302553424
6947923564
4345194320
1047239215
0022160805
5008158010
2859559559
3467246343
8475055785
0582955590
3460566233
8412608430
8482501207
0570031992
3820994445
1271266432
7694597838
1531597434
6270636365
8968999068
8222836228
6857867875
7599495349
3346463434
6718008700
2670272222
8785176881
2777372777
2070149683
2677480461
2728694943
6722140257
6715665356
6692323965
2292592530
8227772267
1111331118
0814291935
6691373558
5738276237
0319073914
8312743137
5359910593
5144554701
5151019053
4009558480
4799617483
2185059595
9690656781
8952917565
1497519503
9969616989
2999899827
0330583035
3393797933
6195497926
0734899927
7585499727
1124210025
3249797922
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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