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:
6449566546
1458181512
0315755005
9705359909
0455123667
6308538762
1422530806
1455757856
2751798220
2630535296
9499779747
4222244522
5505757305
2210857500
3226934295
1844437505
4004277524
3321537245
6213688949
9223658668
8479426734
3539388807
3781515833
8233622333
8019393398
6579457558
8429622964
4846983337
4883329389
6441309203
9773325100
6881996168
9417117171
9476494767
1143014241
4733373744
9778878928
8060116308
0499949890
1454550444
7242479898
1659146391
3948319890
2363278890
8400679990
1013731007
4583583425
4044444039
5799779775
3776674825
7518079835
7504244439
7348940827
8178884007
2631058985
7091466924
0485152389
8401658944
1991559919
2923253924
8868662889
0305558320
5055424945
8134259608
8432050008
3019769048
3920014249
4858550648
4499014809
5240425044
8863363668
3244229244
0007876146
9664759313
8250156311
1971659393
1791372319
6969986093
2152552114
3913373391
0744549547
9939011950
0530541930
4622111980
9856851939
0050151000
6734747736
1787111714
1657561957
0009260929
9759309643
8671338314
9569160591
8683321501
9753759965
1689786911
6573163717
3069777663
8672323367
4436210153
9735397451
0374599151
6922838701
4454334251
1371313744
9547597155
0103040183
7054878405
4534437454
5333356903
0610016041
7745758037
2168236647
7039739059
6849157661
0099858609
3382056954
8567175716
9214124924
5836838558
9387592398
9537508294
8347812808
8560309358
5546537544
9140168637
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
5546043550
6668866783
9985885920
3333999317
5676695380
8325445310
4067665050
7750626650
9926749310
5625029550
1212616521
2333143121
5044558402
3894016121
4469643421
5238249521
1671456121
7290571151
4832885626
9841898669
2191316629
2642340350
2739332973
2401848012
9831033814
4142882448
6647846744
4508216922
3655416500
8398850645
0742413444
0621110702
5606015600
9955453944
4504510445
5556556561
1500959959
3901009910
1766677767
3908338882
3009324973
3706170904
3005932428
3708950023
1968376642
0818974525
4513928012
1987738522
6132271726
7937738792
2011071016
3773389733
2494244925
5578778555
5981388813
3712311232
8505255052
2322734272
1722363303
5982565883
8559302089
2551347011
3312055614
0795275250
2159952591
3475147953
8227332387
8399364310
1329405055
0225444876
3197133610
0722210372
0568877050
8662870071
0528368133
0573568718
4842552874
0663888636
0628860868
8530588080
0479400744
3235832385
2002730237
0596669055
0630552006
2961052037
5711712099
6480519036
4937432205
0250469055
7566725644
0102555186
9573579074
5464853048
6776773674
1909619016
1152551182
8918988149
1488125188
6609712670
0664093604
5433433544
9737396737
7415693642
2731783634
8325012742
5021592604
1348463192
2295252429
5220215220
0408648086
5676776616
0418656426
7390358419
7520355026
9569372020
0073147426
8891162829
6850975264
6852144796
2891907600
6854959454
8755675578
2356135215
0020909900
8491913411
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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