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:
4504020729
4057592819
2566695754
3946295025
4555554085
9105590459
1151905719
2155057021
2222422524
0750775670
3333733762
7033603465
6116131641
4697076675
2328631600
4324673600
0697471665
4861806748
9135119913
8134244118
1410221400
4035750575
1135748904
4435662516
9130909813
9138663160
1135798154
3258838889
8935232293
7102550110
0096596000
0159567475
8138819627
0438853765
7098583558
0992811283
4411461442
3313030177
2664624669
7061772760
1032830179
3022430662
9081480149
3890430140
7419064669
2940863739
4119977711
2360190635
4380563190
7789559799
4919114949
1410910481
2310412344
4143834441
3422522325
7637863677
9026920929
5752353355
9422522306
9037329830
5252551095
0032506155
0057307481
1114554151
6428282222
2867999988
9601113961
2410185876
1604925801
3497183774
2504140709
2811286612
4888586845
5285775708
2202131062
3385551383
7543635822
5942581325
2749252005
9060632143
8439076302
9951992951
6647747446
3623623436
5333593593
8163273455
8250893945
9512373930
9086877545
0440277591
3691577840
5469847467
9259147495
7511618407
5857517485
9868987968
4888348803
0505525097
5448095440
7277324962
6115545661
3995774913
2447471614
3323352433
4663444613
2141941592
7955575971
4997486964
5739263490
5149463414
3079533474
8310016490
6011116770
2858598658
0440100414
2991124190
6466463446
5272642376
9722641259
0120116964
5182764916
1232132133
0020660600
7182718776
5071212775
9130601600
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
1520741065
8814575685
3049965685
6386075081
8775775685
0066166010
4642440647
1116771061
7005775083
7711073061
5305010563
7705005574
5623350536
6647410543
6323915586
3504057061
5519517069
8124975066
1463449146
9911991129
8381514385
3433773143
2300693145
3118249185
8708349185
5715654349
1059384145
8888886688
7676463747
7266124716
8550558545
7285653685
2795654742
3216263785
8983766715
5546658786
6406443406
4484734784
3096305913
1011770143
3673639153
6983755953
2918939134
7660234753
5551753751
5739353931
2285454822
0323773202
3879398783
3574093337
2984398202
5401551832
4953873282
5935093363
1707505423
7783532981
8283308204
1757382288
8353535885
7557479575
3782442834
1285313888
7093330973
5777177777
9109199199
8536533516
5609356535
8106509320
8609519354
9107592359
9707154822
5309332101
8056914644
4039515437
5020901736
4029962651
4126551522
1029621136
9800668099
9753975399
8835988833
4151356410
1353117280
7636749812
8771639299
7113131010
5222556232
6555868585
8181949891
8494819489
7717767178
9191819189
3067256203
5385558023
7095499173
0650256127
1547258179
4376656069
3746198208
3428222244
7775577777
3376573337
1671576411
1705581433
3615573808
7308519157
1475651835
3726586198
4903496372
4902159934
9701237976
4701258974
1303133130
9966999796
8808382376
9485558942
6466336854
5044504305
5545665114
0956768705
4664334660
1025434205
8724334765
7535304705
2647964344
4460304015
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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