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:
1299112689
1368861683
0402000208
4900918490
9680014488
7429600200
1069301668
0833002609
6610501688
3991797775
8302840537
4931990583
3728490543
7629998679
5333550533
7748747785
0700021307
8528228542
7508532099
1068275168
1608837637
7406784211
7666776669
4902550524
3467937499
1508888588
1905205502
4349217844
2105205796
2172669797
4196768683
0399795993
5575575555
2202222202
4186644881
5142654464
6212991320
5383333589
4343207324
3733939780
3736831380
2217991520
1697239070
9510539389
0757991720
5463990194
2941690887
0569653119
1502507218
2968599256
1402999920
0574557470
5041614654
0533658335
6500429028
3889335880
3849441059
3289363422
6580116065
1289411789
3808483040
8315385383
3959839899
7951411577
6602066266
0875007570
2171912179
2876942204
2801097601
2976497394
6600030489
0871323876
8456050065
9682822826
5885282888
5317751777
5682769516
6312734896
5812287749
9857004003
8889257907
8388181833
4672884666
6624766266
6441111613
7369181620
1741139272
8688862565
6322103771
8461185474
9663392253
3879949344
4983303104
5969961132
3983333383
9173979991
0617979691
6795669766
5869299388
3663888863
8253828283
7121117177
3616773674
3613700527
7121129121
8621884175
8636198117
3626619454
3636323613
7193973911
8458755879
2952952729
1810675939
8749785723
8035753611
9339085799
9748685919
9467155760
4079335951
2865042710
6149693761
1174739761
8856558662
3919393041
8184145810
0707002750
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
0550056505
2222045202
5698509566
6475574165
2755054515
9684405562
6659674515
8895205506
4340954503
7324982013
4209369261
8623365592
5609326998
4303333333
7479998474
5222757227
8773387783
6677266622
8787114785
9996969507
9705775509
7486713748
0905274075
4122213045
6139015746
8122213777
4425579509
5554575569
3141994319
0606015106
6355773576
0791615374
8645718539
4948975104
6961314014
6122818106
8867571181
0349474308
1459584110
3832279111
8883374388
1316619161
0920559200
8708187120
1117777515
5572772552
0231621232
8306336383
8723937777
8829922411
5736384543
5576663119
0303945824
8306453646
7590187430
8405363980
1595169387
5580297953
3939393943
7787787357
2802660523
9994999423
8999899380
2912113989
9901108399
2305590121
2111161948
7311111911
9185118591
2811525125
0921595910
9102555520
4334341668
7846359662
3582349102
4014019153
1699919653
1919909102
1594449185
1266313668
0335356033
3608263330
8429788972
1228412214
2385738229
2226786874
1408238349
8208757541
1505719111
3605219102
5026959269
6453256266
4496191944
3752979998
4476166260
3476482102
5767467620
4756418896
6753992978
1671761172
9114459411
0590060509
7722157221
9504850231
7289859112
5081597102
4798557531
8278659421
3502934976
9141230526
2090653945
5809833927
3536535526
5535853284
1040410947
3383430425
7655779576
5229712754
5850750685
0654078428
5841720388
5649797999
0491141149
4220744274
8852484878
5454055544
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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