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:
6589540145
6567034886
8867850832
0905542730
2169596161
6907505907
7589895985
6586751686
0805000000
6067997976
3409599444
4723034322
8937539382
8733528606
7903446244
6007069453
8067950682
3837092050
7046966712
0083170183
5063520648
6646967674
6665556565
5736979669
9083999990
0342242362
7764977447
7925227259
4870888880
3292727329
5980599098
3272780642
3894833616
3314259605
7890828170
5812547844
9471997111
4383034080
3460403049
5321151521
4373148492
5373194962
5371813481
4367085182
9360409249
4933884348
0937777703
5346956545
4141311484
4137902175
0937923813
4344940830
4933841365
0132701403
6586868626
5581451445
6521461441
7714171411
8726102273
5781478009
5318193408
6714180007
8539228226
5685564589
7722407472
5677767807
0770777850
0237077400
8080167827
8798567500
9696169407
0178567599
1384184321
2278262278
1142245123
5765575762
8134075771
9149984378
9800576331
5691764277
9746142777
2472242277
6798116957
9209299922
5650555555
9432122782
6092536230
9638045226
6470113302
5652216697
2444443426
5638033560
1111112671
3696339669
7513258360
4098813561
1261453761
0503753379
3236843640
4426260426
6906101126
7200687026
3984397834
2731891126
9319821024
1713360834
2742321624
6404627822
6147503189
3420306459
3593871889
7353096459
7815556189
3977991873
0883100318
3444383433
8895258259
7595599555
8586448558
5055353553
1475111418
8575148796
1585324655
7095208099
5085134992
1275305919
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
6990301399
1143444153
4494904499
2022111022
9062234129
3693531192
0840817489
4951644019
6389004423
3812025973
0681955200
0687079345
0281923600
0211990102
3807883887
0612001251
3548043400
8285228285
3881688316
5495915957
2602606226
2277777472
9916415576
1076508572
7684982351
8219507212
3954562212
1847995285
5081265285
4883695380
4837417280
5883797358
2050215200
2600565012
2082502285
2422002282
9183400483
2043758678
9904318433
2073787654
9904334901
6874888688
9003770007
2981719889
8183441818
6072511426
9015302045
6623691048
3031381888
6092790990
3931513935
9775375375
9010609969
8643763754
8501815313
6206872505
8518939777
1216708317
1514755457
9375939995
3216523666
6508868600
8198880119
7949553280
4460061280
3499667056
7448562023
3138313333
4498686447
6955556965
7868666676
2749092022
0268360238
4889718974
4498434329
5555519553
5921418939
2453563975
7795363923
6919314228
1180110248
8780775419
6207904816
3535084621
3507923777
3503990399
8733030373
8587757588
7940666747
6405760036
7839468025
5338136454
7369021130
2837109018
7838138777
5368465468
2587000550
0039109015
2666666662
7745888543
0374447440
3084333303
7589959899
7779587440
3044335905
7384343731
3344552646
3849379878
6030218563
5762053166
1693873276
3827274374
1316311346
7728278279
0022052003
3433434163
1042413004
4627548359
2908786375
0767484944
8665892374
6339396389
3338382303
2446646624
4544494945
4866868670
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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