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:
4703724700
5663518487
4913784044
4938787934
4838533542
4066764746
5903699353
8818788878
0631701733
8713697070
1512337074
0104590243
4477239610
1106110606
3118333010
9229819823
4173414073
2972997264
1336723733
7569914637
7346603014
3346786272
3366936963
1969299159
1395797733
7239663292
3546353344
3134613386
1056415600
5968668866
1717717171
1314785739
7768410888
5766454878
0954497554
7337764319
0045445602
2775415457
2677770276
3338318330
6262670472
1806215707
8674415450
4514075407
5834815407
3207044682
9047015313
3962121541
8260927695
3240134021
9904909744
8942666649
7417007774
7262672622
3052074066
2044990907
7012563428
3244966454
3454937359
3611969333
7043577345
7218521222
3092020993
7819499441
5510255512
4772007470
1045951710
1040922353
7770080978
4865933126
6559441071
4842921114
3507977500
2334636333
6912444214
7376137816
3537128791
7307471758
3501980574
7577959607
2597106048
4182378111
9823174761
6771110796
2541875744
5656575664
4747647644
1121114711
6661778106
9989480499
5235898976
1590833287
7140463977
5426492262
9321392231
3303303376
2026660962
9778708757
3444438214
1004540404
0430530003
6094881686
3566955696
6414524513
3434626358
1504539417
1336517492
0714577727
0854680184
9110601160
7900110177
7462774747
0850766180
0904642645
7112605361
9952636343
9334655372
2200718109
5180549297
2190788474
8195528735
5990759599
1440810481
8195519581
9278993779
2107727720
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
5218428284
6336663666
8833988898
4182114427
6270589636
6146453790
5138443502
6312191837
8873465343
4924112943
9950099890
8033805383
2323332243
1030892843
7285592393
1404132290
5665692294
7128932213
2842552489
4340545139
8385583553
9462990624
2723452139
7799441230
3023552233
7067755203
1359180259
8026668276
1150110650
0660300368
9390999503
1133690593
6533227628
7230418508
2699007358
2569710350
3234034321
9958889898
1677066177
0863553856
4666166394
3833080129
9276806720
0868186243
4697076198
6885776144
2508634417
1675705333
6208782634
4888776888
6335633565
1271811181
9604969994
2185717557
9922409447
9428359866
5439575824
9639725272
5978775758
0421626220
9732138179
9320423444
9639393999
0046238068
0379325489
4355311244
6046345267
6795396737
6279696976
4056224220
0247927704
9348333337
6617346371
4628286242
1551998517
0620976940
1057876221
2807146211
6519246470
9548386242
7136776932
1110072066
8146349956
4109901566
3814699966
9009999046
3854478543
7279979365
9611002961
4461641566
3222420425
4363336764
1101115210
3615116035
8560035414
0914523515
9903436710
5160920021
0618634535
0305950995
8804148800
6434546304
5048554545
6805547424
0438598555
7044566159
6804129938
8874957888
0556805288
3222773232
9999999944
5995151539
4625091939
2674479034
5380765002
8188551232
9946143247
3248965418
3298956588
7334709144
6554763844
3299537599
7248742274
6354946366
6838988389
3524737733
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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