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:
6085793087
7274095083
5154895024
9940290997
0098990084
3276637267
5939535993
0255200925
3109097380
0917584142
9027697913
7956506091
6723163744
7326112133
9075552759
4756777774
0963560390
6857658567
0936236484
8837707383
4733749898
4673723638
0637577776
8460202234
2736333636
4863848438
3373777373
0370726029
4340317745
3648925275
5572308411
0348333403
0630707630
0870907087
4522328334
5572755777
2968335588
5289907879
5196995181
2361095805
3193933519
8089790877
0404405405
5855855880
7677897198
3010031000
1993333999
4504333154
5086350565
5526300651
1024333516
4020066967
1000348474
7913497388
7122912199
7566226866
4391434443
5169776511
7162960478
7799993433
6199268283
7185404029
4161760049
6507835630
9384140019
6331683705
2304903466
4504151444
2354115201
2587775528
9539899859
6401996191
0731695492
1009172301
5996422311
9759294102
1272392371
3312772312
0366625306
3102212021
0966104196
2563995232
4762462712
1552068468
5068569431
1568511181
6053403650
5052909051
4362964922
4773077007
1564174110
6923375618
5868635318
7241636119
7777774117
5550105158
3995335439
3622382359
1696196610
3698341008
9698829056
4692823323
3095526447
9788333778
4695889915
3672577667
3052757000
4392349249
4396478043
4219987078
0302750171
4001902527
1294794272
0301701017
4032141113
4319999412
4314443344
4242247286
6657796967
6646644666
1633330816
8262830868
0631240216
2719587816
3896645687
5448996267
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
1393333339
7366666766
2296826329
6348118144
6196149548
3193848770
6213716063
1396362177
6346418234
7565307483
5365353540
8064327632
8364963839
4577377737
8366967386
5024942052
7315631636
8585288558
3527647304
3335483477
6318434916
9747382843
6717316636
3798338039
3332233323
9545645455
9920409402
3077765679
8539958101
8079828546
8127945211
8077575875
6934999393
3107919300
3539755295
8124822422
4094444068
0135175031
0462026420
9722972966
2890876436
5240423424
1315352826
8785271051
2676645064
9345496891
8132557861
8361357850
2469294820
8478774850
8686697865
5555554351
8660886220
1840059801
6787077076
2331932923
0055669555
4147511574
4137564593
0355901791
4245068241
2157195715
0287570564
9249049429
0448448484
7525056557
3389539385
9349741394
9245023591
0389049756
9228401952
7679520434
6688566485
6519886501
4141441261
5054594065
1867091065
5214886405
1268341261
8003467565
7396463871
8304330434
1152662256
3881018283
1446116441
1341521326
8342321523
1881692614
3101301792
3104944152
7954671266
7954723150
2964683541
5914925256
5915115155
7958388390
2923933939
7267622677
1974814777
1014165210
4013502338
1711542863
6933502882
6063336366
1933551353
4111111111
9092190999
6884748044
4806071046
5907151934
1588834235
8072873762
1721172212
0566054036
4424884964
1499481394
5333333765
7566666076
5903090300
2088588805
8542555525
5560509868
8542503078
9606025481
7608505873
2608535750
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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