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:
0303340736
7876587581
8111181218
9779774926
1428817986
9160216716
1515717811
1088540526
4393141936
9045094086
2926376800
8613694602
8858499439
9766776089
0191191409
2336369632
3789994837
9050909290
2941330461
5541963280
1930344638
2081921053
7239339372
5986966554
9255552525
2540754020
7091770119
5023444656
5890804671
5948950058
5050104784
5953133359
1846911496
5060405646
7091881948
5698886965
8320383232
2057171155
6070900602
6706970960
6370184864
8076608371
6326161329
9780448741
2350968141
1619251674
5614325867
0696381503
2999349198
2614333624
7779279777
1974174143
5106115611
1691797911
3619511999
9181592589
0752870722
4992999999
0192902723
4691528538
3282954327
0992479235
3749950939
8824448024
8249992498
0799049307
1229119216
6018019408
7924296163
3194142014
1576749418
2130869163
5806518407
2096544039
5930344659
9365615907
9120919240
2556424957
4344344437
5825228505
0598585009
4754636457
0000021090
5755779555
9359198139
6278079089
1129248557
9491039457
1176778088
5277719055
5388785877
9021321922
2090329330
4399935934
5398789101
5388343894
9398308873
5031059140
5492051922
6689779968
3593773534
7990008970
9479174199
9513079939
8078876591
9070078474
7014879994
2479776548
6536886366
7879487877
9665336669
2107777727
7967765609
9676716040
9576457924
9109053877
9869761787
6652656629
1717661157
6121626631
3828336286
7065651189
4263666437
4056650187
8928366196
6253826188
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
9400500409
0874080080
1494199411
0800550057
0274504009
0894110365
0274026007
3200078302
9220510400
7398008008
4763246447
1943031121
3418313134
3118360191
3115063934
2414629321
2118031146
1703684847
8278979896
1034741373
3221832128
9196797917
1598709176
3228742269
8134785688
3236701404
7538869579
0684802452
3001498655
3975648550
0196291163
5155591453
2666442265
8088008681
4648282640
6240246122
8975665629
8085875337
8212676127
0296297673
4775756547
5282995829
8062286620
8877867833
1761774172
3864184831
9351010930
2071971390
6962392663
9961921981
2864395212
9872366706
9861975577
9302217460
7145390393
9589997784
8064691363
3908232338
9409990884
1899991968
3988737398
7774113783
8338382333
2485915193
3680503791
3048352769
3888946834
2440554400
1648888886
2885585288
5008988809
3688336337
4508444438
4181545111
8596454568
6552116616
4506120435
6288018239
4652475880
6592042532
4502499641
3789379122
3899187281
7295904060
7695561885
7572373776
3091991990
7709170771
1280112010
7685576888
0002220062
4008404748
1615558185
2852558028
3896650143
9358724733
4253150843
8845208062
8052500080
3731003713
4548585584
7547170717
3209733399
9239504776
7231761301
7588598720
3041711863
9741747923
0542717351
2016990641
1336856550
4193857538
5982550258
5151616550
6009097060
4444444442
7631767331
6995225956
5018661617
8411414444
4194794414
6198782985
4198215922
4411605405
1715760824
6415065937
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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