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:
7161611067
3453548357
5127167511
2299919828
9886097828
7180249311
5206842518
7365441027
5586811827
2587482623
9827554414
5107752466
9402764327
8567558875
5705200727
6412442442
2111725721
9887788987
3761061461
2907777729
9525422255
0740997007
0500969898
3975429856
9400470846
2587483274
3720204524
2306002916
7778738977
0888846086
0030336000
2408438087
0201532916
8317208986
4377646086
3577898076
1744118045
4214596440
3101796797
7112476145
4694596945
6677926790
1111151012
1154414168
7117878017
3174343131
4713444047
9456055909
4032999343
4873709676
4456547338
3452322969
3143020920
9413951221
7392376773
5609390556
3301414133
7489579785
5499380861
5692306849
1609400228
5601386143
7402577108
2620032305
1689957288
6778951239
2660922068
9789398979
6773877707
4658046088
2010909012
1467141767
1182703356
1114862943
1719556850
6380507819
1014554000
6138633866
0700979703
5182782285
1313883133
0053975409
3335803885
5077060567
3036336608
5119876989
9549003405
8352436989
1112690977
0640175607
1493604982
5352885982
5323575732
5394673980
2272777482
4144384731
1929969982
8387383786
6654045680
5205238120
5508160345
7347960872
5648943160
5205155555
7567277722
8247992499
8647774767
5498299968
2321337126
9195991299
9112227991
6649996496
4937891626
2491321499
4327997926
2643691698
5360727421
3765588450
8206696452
7741088383
6075896243
7157771385
4460026042
8993686293
8885888450
4454394413
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
8715077103
6029106581
6989878488
6009105087
3379191331
4718878891
6985885696
6429002069
1009551599
9477847707
8749277222
5837373577
4813919981
8437944451
5877319286
9807399422
4877225880
5837286058
1628597711
9728905573
9768034493
9962764970
2928999828
7622522735
9518855881
5667767756
1741814488
0773376641
2975940146
6597532256
8911072119
7393973799
6011430146
0523030250
2828282611
6162446626
2756155516
8164664118
5315252515
1642994944
2762189857
8115646920
5742622563
4654999082
8614192951
3118343819
1617151617
9666189156
8719197771
4485059111
0741493812
4803161911
2830393612
3243449711
2700241099
0708475680
0628718455
0128727857
0790770007
0064666660
2707272267
3078288200
6128426261
5088170502
3076766316
0160756087
0066780763
6072771676
0561100650
3476744647
8980388389
9158199811
8912766313
9277856577
4083157342
8945878302
1111358317
6064276802
4383393948
6366666352
9333599573
6662662766
8835821858
5532305235
5939955963
8320655858
9358162865
1113805665
7261731835
3681962733
8366464638
1870408480
2243123343
5850750059
8970764931
5376479478
8890403200
2960429547
5850436130
8995082999
2040740470
6767076766
9885959989
2715708898
2395058071
9865831829
8814706222
9915094328
4428454607
6401668037
3933479093
3461655439
7137171437
8589555981
0713979093
9499484899
1606061602
0823636920
2823040853
9533056573
3097386589
9023112101
2817332783
6538994986
3098008003
0731607770
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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