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:
6616601676
8997958997
5855484845
3033338337
2666038342
5042381737
3291831375
5163134347
3402331832
9100509510
5967176966
4962546626
3514134654
5570724035
9162128493
3004161426
5967160675
3167719179
2370390312
5031242073
2207357705
2040326816
2242333322
4971844417
3380808588
5500353355
8037207738
8908867796
8586232964
7689720906
6495010964
6231111306
3363330365
3477333974
7292227792
6577762957
1111197111
6362776336
8883308833
6686191688
8446631811
5922878636
6227536138
7171294153
6277202136
1818119778
6495843856
3700767093
1339191143
7237412193
7430411797
3078113048
4642013853
4208612095
5140110520
5856390099
4190840039
6764854029
6560114560
9995957999
8988283297
4232220324
9991090039
9739215837
0495010534
5978452683
7141215037
1343315334
3533351633
6555555057
6626212486
0088890888
9699569895
0555565405
5033037057
1021177231
0844477895
2062679007
6180677505
7071266435
8444338835
7817716128
6913686987
2866662861
7871985482
7853973783
6041606466
7916779616
1817880818
2871661128
4717047707
8028000000
7899699977
2242999272
2292565248
2299569679
8497593705
8897370313
8492930006
3969485493
7747447870
7007257209
5752772035
9664054239
9846547890
9673792249
0666195005
3685294690
7775257812
2764242456
9238393582
1791779114
1229272532
7283751516
8354053752
5445472558
1054141552
1862080008
2906160111
6131766361
8341313383
8142364883
6901780984
1006725986
6939417290
6130309225
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
6919339619
0364263306
4500440404
0536130343
6530126167
3000294304
0986556934
0386331056
0316152081
5565195915
6726682267
9444994984
5559959259
6434498219
9188089287
5516799257
6321598204
5579992287
3333983913
1586118615
5551995559
0010116100
1319696923
2669510103
3358515503
8995914623
1127985610
4050831830
7155237014
4309665608
3223037834
1717777611
4233663240
2243035202
0688060844
0939009038
6752986291
1767488809
4697953141
4732901481
4432332333
3763733337
6792997929
9557117157
1605009050
7433274742
3480386545
9486062123
5466728116
5086950085
7713227242
3487338788
9478079800
7660767767
6510506553
5255775011
8550556969
1174187086
4274774227
6575565555
1180218104
8254545524
5115115151
7700055608
4500091877
8884751701
8337295627
7087793870
9165295621
9571951797
1007101107
8931838128
2900200009
4175517511
1013213110
8055550558
4173540553
3515504579
0055579993
4913237907
2965254903
6530404405
4001301300
3016316070
4222333222
4111567928
6111370141
3021012814
4032457802
4021590474
5823442404
0999291502
7537971134
7579091157
8776772068
7594942953
4747171447
5533599537
0844438104
5755665976
8884284238
7775697716
7575778562
9258434976
1626237732
6194878772
7388168810
7665889536
8360583566
9431097330
2460902609
8938938988
2430585773
8448590406
8461912349
2967254827
2437245269
0676988025
0906177213
1956177208
0932962982
8975115979
0932633336
0958650906
1605856661
2866923268
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.
Post a comment