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:
9256573382
5550823000
4565331815
4955320452
4240333023
9986598059
4165411446
7555855855
7563466736
1769396700
9019836639
6553334889
0112904281
9910999099
0762767067
0539338995
3053833530
1114441441
6477132888
7539501819
2934209882
4092630882
3978339789
9099940918
1121222117
3131323881
0891101832
7309830073
8147919477
8460186861
4273997737
8203168640
8493057823
8207046373
5340871959
8349897819
3933565239
3662636637
7117117731
6767597576
2233633277
0911897574
3465967231
6870397779
4164193771
1782378769
1761870750
6766575909
5768381158
5861558618
6776776677
1738875381
0782070002
0788387087
8606909608
6176617566
6397494367
2633996663
9705494565
9988407767
9272894308
0890776768
3512019667
1411926461
5537860110
0467917001
3511588671
1427994791
0132530103
1531883191
5314615434
3616863618
5650360422
5459906545
6429594300
1457547079
1650350305
5687585667
0459300514
5221010225
4167967911
4421296041
3907963045
0201691911
3359253132
4593393042
6666363647
1551195115
1199106391
1215051032
1965220749
7265039729
5012292747
2607612837
3807332837
2329230729
2222219729
2552425544
0700647670
0490625491
1560612747
0266771319
3487129345
0200112010
3587837574
0461761607
4594649659
6486666666
9448334983
7637633775
4011004110
9414394314
7434300768
9844608922
9413694625
9478368613
9653016706
1932758637
2724180030
9421158895
5828078195
5263554836
7098778790
1831038031
6655560655
5815185199
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
0150580125
6633674613
8888868881
2353113425
2330018195
0622060415
4236864883
3370368199
0796210823
9173515449
2621142469
8116432445
2984675165
4747112447
5370773165
3443733741
3133105431
3559445349
9988363988
3313886310
1151151041
4464339664
5668456021
1688666220
8773130984
3353089088
1829669362
0392882390
6007666470
8972739187
3909990843
9754230470
5650689340
9382566273
8485652470
7989981393
6645812362
8113662172
6817039504
9049019179
2022553462
5145315374
9176168179
0022562502
5111129511
5412504509
9188601506
3964705116
8174810156
2222515822
4599940599
6014604106
0042404007
4170401457
1632047308
5681419763
9592953224
1622921052
1622310122
0681916619
1492412294
5933755357
9591099919
5658468584
5377477334
7765167371
0288777720
5687746392
7795406271
5750197189
8666724057
0358117566
5539630556
2016380674
6523181501
4524630231
3676737696
6884686238
4114611674
1113131211
4151440551
3113964778
5118416982
5162194229
7914942996
5964116945
7118118788
3163433436
0483000383
2102902971
3621906931
5559957719
0602770624
1166111637
0479617620
7609510631
9909614639
6546577731
7243171981
9570067084
7886063484
6332184543
7372344106
7338178873
9802020089
6582686868
1770270047
7361317333
3468433643
9506700990
7337633332
4999191914
9537505206
9296136281
4309763468
7566110783
3736701410
6013403400
8936533838
5100757550
7861995118
5960708484
7816526695
5931740238
5930514033
5911204119
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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