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:
9000159001
9900730279
8428884827
6222575226
1512450259
3731320276
0620024097
3756057006
6068787009
6066680366
5947074509
5505306135
9799797907
0653054301
2841056367
9753676309
4809270199
6433600327
8888878821
0531346310
2123626311
6999336299
4736876319
9835976311
6899426441
3791848491
2833633819
7177120713
6865856583
5595591255
0803338060
0834656080
4430151763
0598830363
3677321013
1067758718
7014859130
2144231039
7186402094
2156940626
4474994744
2118441811
8836488468
7981219987
7054873448
8767806787
3365353613
7838786887
3232338202
3152436617
6423088714
7138727287
9782203693
4192753813
1602554086
9050403483
2050883902
3055305116
5640355366
3004000000
1005401080
9702595205
2654626662
4544435452
8999999839
5485586475
5000151960
1641859969
2996136470
6704882965
5640136492
4505791470
6038463630
8829888968
1126421141
6843334843
8152708059
8846717082
2033482688
1051413409
8849406374
9525233500
5402277599
9297137570
8839835772
3773117873
0607636070
9391373579
2055605602
3371143718
7105289072
7703560663
3731195681
3703542630
7205555252
7779877787
3147237218
0731870738
2903003909
0307230024
1610640116
3431669341
7004374330
2330679140
0716845118
4097046711
3783474031
4502305138
4093399033
9066206096
1217311287
8945199485
1217329517
9219140370
4219486153
8243416175
0415480736
2324248237
2222323262
2222220223
5054335045
9771633243
9473820200
5204535892
0768423232
9433555293
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
4363116113
2329492499
5236112723
8606338638
4323343431
6339486050
8339473041
4636446976
8033413268
7084448740
8089709088
3401314133
6589757564
8482385952
7544463429
6489773337
1442342182
3089706818
9645294969
1032002022
2296969295
5087150777
4696164428
5177646649
5642931552
4095653324
9047061638
7939197631
0525107951
2220202402
4373393747
0601697402
3058029661
6481192762
7676227407
8749393901
8027674410
2099958196
7614975586
9697544249
3610931069
2397322387
8667586767
7053355333
9129661229
2998370698
8930319821
1218704130
0298527668
7638133381
7280787720
8210558085
0914708441
2292392292
1255019972
3183965964
2068458289
2978818069
5522555282
0999019909
3433339964
1601667251
0750078057
5459054599
6693262666
4008900888
1490717017
1493749306
4490745172
1408905925
5400555403
4409297784
9346631140
3880086212
7838081010
1244032007
7589338957
8881181800
8600286012
0122239192
8224882842
2587356833
2529219739
6429231902
5527300095
1427334711
2639111963
8580222828
5427249247
2501315552
0396141098
3183746011
7406157098
3723650218
8928957298
7979447196
3094049010
4222240022
1114116141
6424124641
9742294742
1108401041
8872575472
8704524583
6172593157
2444121322
2425586595
2412510868
3281337333
7907559579
9962464926
7989779779
3987326083
7267531195
9909328404
9282621858
4901380084
2201125736
9764223770
9894335070
9223855077
7357535737
2363223370
6222225266
5500035060
1365153617
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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