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:
7805931700
7009639932
7805880526
0819524918
1809559513
7805375553
5914814445
4059690059
0185458014
1129757921
4060535806
8828007286
1110737108
7018658206
5421455001
4193698228
2096035008
9275705926
8595278400
6096192767
1056702625
2697788263
1093139193
0526253060
2391090092
6085755585
3657262567
9543533627
3958610651
7462931107
2725430622
9929991602
1111213221
0185110581
2497203427
7010830187
9085080885
8253454125
8595399895
9873333389
8075388982
8085397414
8850313651
9085537108
9575469584
5218223915
7967953348
5469153585
6875653383
5595557509
5333353305
1938223913
6458564485
7444474448
3865665837
9939839098
0700027096
6026996012
2028455097
1830437496
3127426012
0486137817
3266266099
1166610686
8885856788
2222426742
2882998724
8713810746
8956750788
8002350824
6905423624
2217710644
9999976999
1333646381
9996999692
3334537953
6195278697
3620058999
7039179289
2596036999
0334838297
7147481474
8600471186
4126168487
2491435274
5451515476
8297882497
4814282294
3373838877
8717971189
7680676618
5225262525
5533525365
4335753274
7656676325
0574955515
4071276068
7297966665
9538075318
8015505185
8383383338
1979870889
8853357338
3125275738
7303600789
8107687885
9694250385
7141710388
7779707577
3230323630
5003042053
5529152519
3503252557
5703477573
2261522653
9389002639
4986122569
9888098689
2084524149
2694228787
2896386373
9665596652
3504330033
7886877868
2538238235
5099335530
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
7329084266
7876910800
1328912533
1369943794
7668976662
9329599999
7252999227
1105880580
0376076376
3377777773
9969449569
5901191860
1991957913
6923891519
4074959720
2587538973
5778549961
2838979820
7817559718
8853595185
2900590252
9929719297
6048859862
6359033266
0792755862
3165650256
4396590268
2052222569
2792272109
1251152751
9180114908
8133852509
4263151753
7394122969
1508522591
1277512108
6552581640
3102976612
9448595483
6737070311
2275576552
4414451441
9090090000
0833383380
6557115615
8780973200
3340884406
0458072800
8499274300
7888774800
8228882620
0222560205
0003383300
4437108471
4992847561
7199733561
4021848483
4930184039
4991779919
8029788727
4109894184
7831073537
7150115511
3333337342
5887866887
6221221684
9944998524
6118291624
6699851644
5283296824
0034091784
8206521548
1826668616
5610605656
6658265226
3154151433
1158102275
1658609401
8655125378
1856130521
3654109203
0417363816
9064342315
2610160293
4419382421
7610376326
4467111166
9811891181
0434404443
2189828891
1520159552
1606533107
6806145980
6693105852
3658558655
8093630660
0520333300
6616116615
1604110404
2796752296
9798888985
2713751532
1296980611
9893798797
7258828886
2706006606
3699797676
1816911166
9128520019
4309087036
4510300139
9356457399
0306557039
0383820138
0911988019
7797557396
0477745017
1078870802
5598795885
8874040488
0937577305
1574789695
0978066201
9594029044
1298959406
0531055201
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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