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:
0172292305
5706285278
8895000842
5186166206
1742111217
8392292222
8196666819
5405004550
0882280878
2345690157
1093842410
5517098452
6731493451
1431112431
2453443920
5009090158
8827728272
0414555410
7679361938
2770649364
9970674321
2973549513
1373531335
2970522922
6630460666
5779679653
9972397793
5015255221
8155383111
8685665665
3553933923
8156565477
0156518006
0693325763
0085570909
3416669853
6366712059
8087519656
9446591196
8040522439
8086333066
7347646677
8567757757
1400501300
6498363844
0193664961
6613226632
6113211111
3238112311
3133121454
7123203460
3618657138
3695638036
7138145719
5691769688
7460018437
7688419861
0549239681
7043337648
8838834388
1249129461
8888868188
1183818837
4384014566
0188066938
6586079257
6408389972
0589333338
7108177105
4436004644
4488048400
6344444634
6053077601
0050997871
0987931108
8637491608
7077577570
5691197671
1114405174
8001176108
1177991874
4694757921
1695790597
7974602588
0661720108
7655756765
4191691199
0765267006
1967776779
7994643979
7304314081
7711929665
8861908217
7867148771
4817914778
7127177122
7761441662
8304663830
7883666677
2870711597
8353916415
6258357417
8125256517
1171117492
5101990915
1595555517
2612626518
8288282680
6308260083
7919666912
2189211119
6224774424
6313708154
7919831288
2929209920
6904229723
2123107543
3510108924
6046789254
3081928207
6790366252
3978377737
4516616161
9891191998
6740844707
6080997606
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
9904233096
4806504843
7639589875
1659527566
4536556566
7039597000
1954444453
9801011901
0667226660
2993020904
7558557985
9329369632
8381317348
8733250982
5250320942
3042592644
7240417348
8683191349
2232655999
7589304999
2537331204
7578326093
7212712711
9197391975
6538963356
1573615315
2259222922
8440000808
0869406886
1518158811
4165716716
2815767255
8843155734
2465428821
8249245283
0618496486
3753931300
8139347146
4986736786
5853231352
3223131322
9688668857
7776975796
8868646286
0170117100
8114991214
2531903945
2292935699
2617980694
8734974447
2293929933
8117221112
2530832250
8602280230
1980581919
1630012106
7726462674
5885558855
1820548040
6720505339
5136020892
9930414250
1920054902
0008493007
0738740002
8758795645
6709767208
6805750055
1558818818
9759795979
0588777057
8033083320
7090400974
0400420470
1060029013
1069111690
1071456378
4230410870
7973401470
9211320990
2775920314
7951332653
4152435461
1946241566
3195437561
3460332463
1688447618
4114445121
3695635569
7577131756
5011791337
7112299937
6695346937
9028690837
9015990815
0660016006
3774943937
9949999934
7072172317
9932333927
5558785575
9698889586
2956959562
1553455582
5617989575
5069834275
8629339579
5311083572
9401454407
8241309097
9331288289
8438986070
9435334345
8438588084
8801211218
3306963399
0294494944
3230503032
8305088505
0268500400
9432393992
3339362028
8218397862
8209520460
9236335475
9262045936
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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