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:
2552597253
0653850863
2082882830
9866338969
3161450868
4601430258
8070539833
7906432252
2051830883
5958793061
9258175747
1850796608
6255545345
6555335553
5978757918
6255111555
1118711817
2890558559
9731835049
1870635036
9144276867
8213237667
6333337356
7559795847
7567776147
9556535669
7797079029
0723800082
3342332323
4846998866
2786118286
3516109522
2349928573
3556935925
4842907471
5542832602
9232112333
3969999699
8298424824
5101917011
9408149697
5402410166
0409441239
9292444872
8432479998
3512553251
5411351364
7938273284
5311313550
5939873884
2783253850
6823553560
0308821854
5464418550
2201102220
8240582288
8879287888
0864774048
0290586525
8294246523
8841241327
8871226311
2854758906
0972697706
0669896608
9384553829
2761333712
2662508986
2669853029
1661603416
2767948206
2772387734
9555495549
5369639351
2755457444
0124334042
0325506687
5265573859
4125438993
9124324721
6169649090
2118118928
9750557960
1123331236
6076116280
9736253986
7482717289
5724150920
6332378928
8957331980
1093413933
0667447706
9361414467
4826334662
4023327338
4363494986
1817406632
0896428471
0067925491
7640896607
1686715798
6525792526
4644181030
0624772764
3600430044
6686886486
4544141141
7505373037
3317777331
8196568258
1570999750
0237370333
3594368195
0176719542
1197525068
2277316371
8230366677
6034557694
6507515333
6034134515
8500563472
5700555700
6007777076
2244242442
8534154844
9090505930
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
2014343048
5753735333
5512951295
2916911269
5012708024
6092221390
6817945210
2716256103
2913972478
8255575248
9235107006
1115033452
9455927563
8185518885
5215111125
3239032900
1450000107
9945994544
2992015667
2946686124
2893031783
8802381612
7987377999
2041640021
8306033286
2893433299
9882688922
5904263915
9756913116
2390417116
9195433165
1155911925
6867963869
6100660116
1112131121
6651787165
6904199940
9865496569
5969399537
0762576276
5705728573
6705783122
6962530812
6867488921
5724913258
3177234144
0833937126
3447337049
6313617741
1137135721
0440604046
1944416440
5111341135
3737727034
5418144443
4702925339
0145726623
9631896752
8339996783
6443114344
3369943659
5535205325
5213125132
4708367405
7802761440
4794503414
1282344884
7253575727
4784774874
6899888988
1702311061
7657565555
6051401015
2806968089
8714111114
6010317031
9854989597
8750133254
6836323002
2711929480
9813129105
4612946966
3534135130
7781577787
8574775487
4584928616
3554199401
3784593485
4244578676
4572143214
9778129218
9334424834
9415161981
9827692211
5553992951
5561569513
4243421834
8998791788
9222224292
0600010067
4584108418
4344441437
2724374372
5320478678
9812140367
6923940478
2071709438
2883228054
5350335035
5764964746
5954455445
9612313096
5354923629
7346907076
5952375589
7766579062
5642141727
4508667491
6089455173
6805762040
6695946381
6095995996
6527666662
4109501899
9658759676
5880458800
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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