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:
2548055802
1808911898
2900220929
5169915965
1509926118
3818930322
2139125797
2504928299
3549946602
3116131361
0439204042
0887999789
4267775624
2817101505
3164991163
3937713745
0136900250
4337784224
0075330357
5215459124
3583888953
1999919999
7863039959
0071719953
2452239193
7285083994
2060159993
1045994541
3129889313
0982505908
1198119088
0195580431
0198204559
1965595678
3165591098
1089152297
3475869571
8075012631
8365397956
3489981212
3477933777
8865358558
8812828288
7389077399
8332686660
3760254670
0297267435
0270954649
8116437965
6666555463
3155335755
9293327935
5557754670
6476967649
5042983972
9081943034
1859199570
0432568673
5844777758
1483554849
9058958909
0431341033
1632131622
7661560800
7708723168
5008529235
5966785595
2106516005
5938759567
5978899777
7061577617
7765767767
1999399393
1254742227
6049609610
9226792697
9299762263
7059393485
1029339539
9259723203
5044708803
0430979744
0582052285
5540738960
1482907856
3432332333
1180919111
7448949074
5510755705
0582252522
6260047203
5740337510
6821595576
2164564628
3194393381
6060206066
6221466222
6840568400
2767062020
3538553353
3487944943
5767166867
6668998969
3768920393
3687627767
5537905287
3667972112
5568914872
7577779195
2500553510
9006559060
7889197281
2808693291
3304959366
4298853260
3892393566
6394489280
6033730667
0039043030
8187737594
0033709242
6434773743
8483088880
0389707060
0527000272
0039930093
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
2822992988
2212221622
0533030475
3037738074
3518432575
0462681476
8840490432
8814131684
1841921435
1789971899
2018100102
7425885788
0057337775
1017182782
1484307233
7279293644
2727891243
7417814850
8049889604
3145515465
5858918958
0771778011
8841618059
9903160001
8709315469
8653280615
8498788905
6117467505
7827062377
7829492575
5161674382
7475772545
8867877688
0527353372
0066998606
2424664427
2784307769
7872372759
6371777262
1313493239
9555592250
9379767339
4005304753
9916694663
1122173712
7775252755
4975971954
9348038398
0709557097
4975929242
7758215612
7976284147
4609099503
4675578430
7521296593
4147096008
3255093554
7294293704
7707776303
7350003507
7447497714
3965393598
9305535095
5874747752
5871228817
5866058868
4466774644
5864785828
5876723867
4886739700
6466042458
6876204126
5379777153
3872727036
6145906936
2242367998
2249999227
3872322328
5772997777
5019719005
6135969635
1724810858
5650108495
0776060851
1226542843
0226119022
5650456564
1275012770
5755555755
6664864864
3941919119
8068808608
5638866888
0504775742
6901965637
6966905059
8654347705
9048801730
8938978148
2872290058
6989528207
2789349130
3078560485
2088552858
5951399553
0789380001
6783273626
3879888899
2102855459
1518057353
8840759395
3022051357
1433135341
4254527445
3663931996
9656959363
0495020457
4350590453
3497593574
1001040130
1111134111
2375833514
2142842110
4440470430
1153683504
7520890151
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.
Post a comment