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:
9975596865
0807796505
7664969327
3996296625
5066776615
0870000867
3666667396
1959999501
1126296221
5114515515
5627070726
0600000000
4038338444
5006588147
5610342361
5926315354
1134322326
5636351373
9079557190
3888161008
0630601736
5454554904
9681254798
9573204798
6916051104
8517871774
5051066994
5924779145
5533254881
0533199282
5824944169
6343113634
5537255722
5426454441
0884778047
5236953993
7088997027
7308717212
7221927456
6002963579
7371999793
6382962669
4006440404
2107666780
7228222722
2794632537
9734187520
9853814766
6163850822
7812711867
5556552526
6200880622
0307937920
1738718737
6657683279
0919818959
3617713929
8171817244
8772118278
4777783744
5252925219
9577927359
2910126921
3178838181
2560622620
5773999937
7819779170
5778747407
7148666050
2729860158
3826687967
5723675739
2816875977
2340755302
9405874391
5978270372
4070774402
5335050377
4565415954
1107770371
4368664389
6666608666
8778885878
7112024120
3838756837
4817057836
9619774627
5153756226
0194157878
2823828766
9165455710
4665597123
4981792822
4086787600
9156796926
4365544563
5081818058
4933799443
0625302523
7404744744
6127262112
0178718177
0043738300
0133726490
6438712590
0874748689
4148707291
7027733014
5258997339
5218499346
7083487886
2479295786
6544535346
9900829980
1999991889
7613747716
9983938939
3082022861
9680484956
3602086633
9732761973
8082777807
9129779922
8630086806
3702442073
7746040277
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
1000088897
7621075537
2116975607
7530874506
5958959806
6555554365
7688888667
7733777337
5085555505
7986219317
7994030745
7943052599
7986549005
0527575505
7890226208
3344644434
4928699264
7886070068
9313849117
6160778685
6380753154
6962707065
2962390322
8370187088
4110711177
6943843346
6781681771
2004271317
3767071344
0261724017
6150072416
0364116346
7747174017
5451242315
0026002406
5414121544
6277880707
8990256777
2484448017
5682450580
3050535087
9734943977
8480488004
0597550760
5060066500
1960996601
2844828488
6944461944
9911974197
6758498144
4205668117
0416964691
2069229184
2801494988
1866641086
8271312387
4484008499
4992338297
9621031279
5240938356
1236738489
8457231497
7029431097
2337599063
7024094121
6999566027
9224499323
2311999127
6996396369
8633668893
9193999351
4030319043
9388693863
5245025250
7887742787
9696797564
8379091254
9790791864
8595391314
6494422787
0432823487
6140001046
0573703775
1363515736
6066136410
3536217030
6689413770
9562501447
0133751776
1779109017
1651401524
0714102924
7078231454
1925418454
5580990508
8800101857
7808788470
0502201424
2199412924
7266705567
5200890528
5569996954
7958353798
4813095263
3151056958
5861606568
5159595918
2840193788
5579396537
7555967595
6163668263
3365535641
3910498233
1882837291
9610368697
3031069597
1631037633
5632868813
5245425455
2570227022
9113991911
9242925700
5675863018
9133837488
5210633412
3275221446
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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