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:
9494343993
0659115596
0530130010
1809915999
0657903044
0460150289
9809040135
1604156929
0834986238
9995445997
2413011422
5894282542
2606996006
5914926004
9964381214
2464941694
5815925333
9614073071
3653756353
5280058002
7631131037
4982338988
9982902395
4680122282
9681989957
4283679887
3282189027
8755107764
7720721166
2099581166
5686857184
7775571577
6642666446
6216127167
3558887153
8445151784
8050466930
1281713241
5378026942
2980616690
5363334630
1338418943
9269766792
6026226610
0202203245
6826186128
8608308483
8404044044
5567575755
0567586313
0027319685
0007308572
8667615160
8408734333
2665945762
2442250361
5142210167
9945529826
5654331636
9498989999
2965825588
9943559393
8742248782
2611411245
3126332231
1245254542
2194595521
2344585720
1675299150
2144549696
2145590697
3211493010
6006322400
7202402002
9730022871
9126230870
3732332875
2220220502
6986669786
3103332001
0765000560
7865877866
8761877618
5401992419
6684554565
5794588186
5404911812
6094522578
7691102233
6704831668
1463939255
9070107799
8543897509
2114694309
9222972295
9990009510
7779257229
8439994300
7999997759
2274772477
8933383539
7444475447
1116171418
9894073148
8826471118
4923081439
6487682649
7367877179
3267622202
6009990009
8033505308
8805998589
3007945381
9037967766
9017945334
9203912938
6373676500
1439590692
1751992267
0611775287
5153435397
6714795167
9292992882
7127937291
0031110310
9557275892
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
9959666699
0664064400
9759299792
4096994679
9609940472
0003233625
9309707362
0056026540
9209934602
3606722694
3686027047
4706049002
1626582488
8682333683
4520000002
3662777766
2506053650
1726575217
3236683115
0596416134
1926465208
0954587486
0436730770
1592445111
5954659569
3201434274
3926529526
0062504931
4378722398
4048284688
6448780806
0474171448
6761261767
4346763744
4372002437
4098588489
4504870063
3912348038
9574246808
4907166276
9802332938
8947878898
0917212215
4574144577
5582222822
4880608476
9048998840
9255055920
3609996307
9892059840
0748888826
2884958927
8400498027
5397098802
1910000111
9966164199
8323133333
8601333360
8665367812
8901066880
8610308777
8363300698
8686465866
5191810151
2197898891
4183981943
9396737337
4171741959
5083976467
5087867349
4183916821
2099810966
0716403462
0955125284
0286142759
0982125315
0952115591
8583488453
8675667665
3216361131
2581350513
9503272157
8291536153
9119159569
8563543609
4573154355
9161441111
7516001105
8019299529
9204525299
9840235905
0425966390
4582577991
1565638450
4474777480
0083636310
5151775401
5996568955
1184118194
4427332724
9798269287
7772872708
4747774624
3189074627
4878360297
5548911724
2724330724
1911362797
6669437286
4060907610
0676451801
0474962163
3479397714
6677276622
0064444404
6000900090
4562262644
5754755743
9999666993
3727323738
1771919718
5496415798
4094365930
2469923744
5022666718
2043961798
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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