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:
2200772100
0037303367
4999737694
4177977942
9473037964
1203073699
9340371949
6672187692
5054987704
2662660622
5545767502
7107121207
0009939290
6967651427
8775667200
7492060420
3542059408
5771860606
7681767178
6445542645
5110581525
7877118172
3100418178
6904382575
8028617574
1837481629
0356648128
1685520769
1297579574
6621714895
1465708596
6535555555
2667866842
3287783877
9721491141
1497514919
6306002436
8717137111
4416161418
0189990981
9754497488
1872632814
6394903486
7113560581
7823660514
8774331622
3734399613
0674703731
5274784599
3336777337
5724332525
0204340394
8372663627
1679491197
9113692081
7103310397
0002022099
7665890607
9211191321
6602666002
0208812080
7779799097
2378220683
6556930896
6382351959
1884112472
6852380090
8946393981
6704264474
6382968966
1857117551
1581661151
8233355365
2241621805
7132725808
9743055262
5015951890
8552228305
5393835668
5454551544
6656585262
4407247724
5079805779
2169516111
8349994999
4149928325
2769817236
5377229038
6069213528
8079538826
9762677666
0908779770
8301558363
4122312212
0301544696
8928331155
4708582251
4301648645
4191399913
3808403688
8671681686
5713444431
7660770066
8600728522
6680453723
5678723600
6669490560
8660431492
4165843810
3056428145
3726623385
5530878350
0880178810
0400050481
4496546545
7737773350
9127227190
7402337380
9414467272
1288448593
9333382967
7413373313
2706020627
0304433340
1232922982
9282626992
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
4222444125
8557558576
9994990439
8754554807
0068052109
6231452535
4080597089
2095022139
8349458107
8846703723
2114540183
6286909253
2958859226
3373733275
3736603736
2813353281
2161146123
7305069053
7318611068
2532525552
6856368856
0545994595
7546521371
7257904960
2542363205
7852658705
6545855448
0570722632
4875725706
4645466675
5848900754
0878578015
4645644646
5510751077
4885984948
9439499994
8390654229
3249931522
2558256502
8594652607
4444954921
1115551501
2775656217
7267772526
1692236692
7415751775
2658386266
8723878821
6938999688
7713384222
2694812883
1433963334
9733696454
2328933812
5935812319
0149006900
3087964007
7603816837
9013919306
2267262839
7487444787
0060626900
0600006007
2715815882
0565950555
1131717131
4029990990
4745703049
2409840929
0425860165
2425815303
4749868586
1461330061
7666331965
8361067547
8465369303
7661371670
0465005065
3517053305
1454314413
8316383661
0866886601
5554505540
0666640683
1303551493
6579255193
4616546473
1633851180
0491095693
4562856490
7637377736
2579372525
1123919113
3747332774
3657340100
3157550032
1639341402
7879310468
3827937554
3995535739
6036543622
0098972904
0530542579
3570177151
0026702200
1138511516
6995898895
3094994944
3140384305
0670704706
8448448861
7335335779
5147474306
5963986761
9429834365
0238806371
2028744035
1181427454
8688842693
2989815042
2189743295
9195595595
8799797797
8209888820
2638443873
1581818185
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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