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:
1103333301
1348140813
6826287629
5795777145
3484437343
2367883813
4508473347
3009013355
0170140308
1702272301
4410414040
7046660440
4111393412
1000070400
4555370381
6267860449
5708690440
7470090442
5170355731
0279027700
6136961153
5241991121
6140181714
6276980212
5170956774
9240365589
0171120684
5608886656
7042622201
3855232288
3957535539
5657963586
5553679775
4807521238
5058974697
3557236338
8811948169
6642416261
6391773965
8241616299
1111116921
2966878269
7717171197
2217215263
4544447955
8305711304
3972718386
8305461525
3374725831
8707777770
2474444424
5945747445
3966069403
3305203300
5550650056
1435475043
1311131316
5124112524
5247832013
5299272714
6815971323
0791511246
9512355024
6688868568
7172441772
1960101169
2457757575
1478148797
1168578129
6458858289
1410183061
2967756153
2825511567
7931163202
7924028736
2322180281
2922192182
0324322000
7065457065
7825057077
7871557758
5583392017
2297368852
6035348194
6515387336
5214771224
6687336367
2235029232
0097000070
7531313311
0907000090
6815461448
4740942779
7560555067
0740565624
6360967537
6315542303
6960211849
6560847301
8468542553
4769876957
1397646358
8299411393
7070170127
6609202691
1548616583
8333778317
8985441958
4504784454
0587824637
2569744261
1584708842
9804550850
4445745424
0509690550
2083808282
1560765611
5248256240
9947995855
3988257925
9087901639
5981995571
6969262269
3284132334
9007220709
6148011661
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
8719719777
1075501155
8098890688
9428118829
8078106193
9455751053
8011790995
1071703368
1778837671
9070405979
1333033313
1836868138
9502595029
9081585220
3382204896
1870889770
1332248379
9174862450
9063967280
2745148020
8357992155
1774292655
8272997280
5026002650
6112142170
8800898055
3122237122
8430479145
1558579248
8432676235
8791019275
3574578345
9669269232
9979099049
6366176136
1711716174
8518353353
5055353555
6595555556
4973739379
6415564652
6998195158
8773598972
6053765808
7095312841
4758158254
8447388747
0224662460
1559191191
0759168900
8724680807
2747873678
2287128448
0229157177
4963575425
6290735403
4293543616
6557523258
4563534555
6293737397
8092989820
8996096699
6557250555
7060967970
7153271223
2111511592
3309937091
6001011593
4903967291
5720461222
9504910291
0377761572
1562615266
1173447138
7080004058
4244312483
8622612281
9538312383
3760644328
7999942241
9607602483
9490593490
2799540898
5918693808
0491253176
9400994490
3141943179
4040040008
1119914892
9160051806
6867724290
0491421090
9100718349
2236677242
5136114360
0922490142
7077774039
7700727507
2585258292
8994187407
4828904234
9839604960
7004413964
1299117292
5035535867
9908883970
0379004397
0444031404
6464042067
8868100049
3040800689
9790632209
2790937209
6826862668
4747407447
0000047000
0844440064
3387232837
3950444049
9685229658
0203333200
0938369159
9533823384
9363441470
9685293019
3338205731
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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