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:
8868105618
4409409994
0787858670
9099919909
0339019910
8448809478
0740915964
8993959994
9241959678
2477417670
8430038010
7274630713
6941870729
7803730779
3391992113
2272078020
2004446720
6017617460
4669141466
2960502610
0987290279
7354953554
2364926956
0669658087
4779566144
2664213400
2379210014
9655282780
2249451589
3955689492
8937632561
2225531582
2582985291
6872818266
0050239520
7152152719
4879513546
9302574798
4308308980
2339166986
6672576661
5770177517
4379747939
9331313333
2808424804
1708661484
0706053598
1716953021
1117988275
1825955128
0116701617
1100000010
5718675541
5707950575
2699194128
3071538152
5370156222
2607499728
2595956192
9997779951
3889834928
9879858799
5691696599
5745051615
5008362228
0500475225
9854451213
5335155318
5600001625
4060206725
2363665263
2221242241
8151118152
4712772184
7567776665
7738778868
6970618185
2697972666
1485329866
5308314186
7759729916
7897778787
6227462224
5767995555
0729172592
5227728323
5727903654
6267332193
7897215241
5699400862
0384748822
1089360699
5299777019
0246789781
1406311101
5046304420
0289770078
4304040400
5084408044
4483433834
9727279272
6898672866
3232592935
5819072836
8137835835
6578201164
0078675964
6602232854
5268487920
8736982727
6307191386
7182694595
7744774407
9805007995
0008891380
8858882589
7445745724
0910181680
2316172541
3356394936
3506308927
3116716737
5555155555
2908308392
7306030039
0590950000
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
2623563225
1448814748
0790094409
7370790370
1604414276
7032520670
4875790248
6601393405
4292223245
6044973092
3049375719
8839547499
6833568769
8137918131
6029509022
3069333333
3724522877
6843246644
4763738947
5391915983
9981398488
9396410443
7815515647
9995539985
8383818833
4593335943
0209090423
9219292929
5435045300
0367007617
6265151262
2465169568
9495094910
5292117259
9297081840
0469097439
9280093979
6141900159
0219290098
8732694078
3454954379
2372393452
0999440098
7211172111
0998808899
6272165059
0465236814
0252136603
2252142501
5957393595
0205402000
2967129121
9472272199
6011919916
3955557228
9353657020
2997355058
6023256025
8804330804
5555045055
9579968599
7889957928
5020556020
1281823821
0871880057
1330404413
2322331925
1819434921
1468081511
3489529027
7950723213
4840681917
7091576609
9084176275
2287676675
1025631879
7977971579
2244287245
3383535874
5546772605
9167726971
9083289203
7820442003
2081220208
6395553355
9005563012
2080212215
2083278401
7125219191
3990517592
0790578242
1776720077
5890345564
5407895574
5777570554
8718718272
4981498644
6025265062
7242427447
4453145541
2208428822
9181191919
7770977797
7271122167
4181176173
2258153505
2108953148
3253119858
6572828672
0531450310
0198989881
3287993886
6472967040
0272936919
6517955397
0191410278
0511177560
9190790057
4664578067
5779802397
4855299861
9217997012
2660560851
9898279218
7226802867
7774344397
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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