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:
0998750807
4694150949
0910566716
4694962476
0970199790
8968996896
4616561686
4695848858
0494809489
2553570924
8453049405
3023554081
2023540118
3043533440
2250550955
2443242323
8555755785
8023338383
7459821750
5463941788
1552096888
0563120289
4259151954
7263066322
0424004000
7562866287
5561965654
2043949423
6397979693
6866884868
6659596596
6844545055
6657859412
7299946634
6829565205
6694863191
4589117105
5363280281
5569195290
5284364434
2589152852
1334231163
4189899999
5323333332
2269529262
2913339092
2667270266
1183833188
1557353717
0371470068
4844273962
6683830287
6834633150
2227673987
1529932603
4532678616
1638564030
1188503584
1589991889
4138631813
1538585385
4525725225
9882822884
7937045001
6918930040
6910013219
5481108832
7912192221
6401666604
5630030330
1901511111
5988988458
3071690214
0125631446
0568080216
9730810884
9100331049
1202110214
8008080680
6498040889
9602090226
7607111701
1611616711
5814214484
4337333334
1837167302
1638127696
7617201675
6637117789
6638447202
2953704841
4993706065
6934095274
4914346693
4534959454
1760700107
4954099444
6090790065
9913399931
6465665991
0341063434
0475045971
7814056979
4555556054
9393667739
9090905998
7309863879
1242155421
8183840874
7252640440
8609630220
3879431690
0240332440
4844441884
3938643698
2442646220
0882950890
7966818040
1027136347
8389514321
2799618717
2833338248
3131136121
7002110720
3009750937
3613114315
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
7713878131
6969666839
8356363681
9755557009
6886817039
2270368639
1862753683
2109176231
4738766631
2177189217
8593393589
9669096908
1703379371
9015276287
5296395574
0627583207
5642979919
0323088951
4095960379
4291951529
8107860099
4381431245
9027950297
9440700749
0146161020
6679765579
9335539235
4581099402
1694995908
3636974958
5400478958
7904778407
8225029085
1214142151
4997974908
1518195158
2194429955
7913737628
2784403050
3711521471
2960790696
3994693969
6711551611
5184481144
7710880072
7780088708
3805656803
7324923254
5534735355
8800987536
6734750047
8524604758
7380034223
7820742457
5503303725
2354255124
7744977947
3366730867
1603237324
9751553927
6530105176
3138877774
2672630744
6603636666
5912119959
2720370072
2719977922
2719960052
6703316500
8709133050
6703974126
5713396400
2298363762
2445971727
6490972734
6275987588
2270373207
9431718477
6226363662
6145161111
5990999095
6151115111
1407704747
5922855182
8695799587
5195105445
6601867437
5827855896
5127863811
9454100160
0680888888
8520850355
3451913934
5353755337
5153947728
8378931541
5553423560
0453898459
3450638044
6172976872
3771361261
3988943876
7981780294
0788170501
3971777771
9182511111
3581918139
7548343535
4392934994
3254243343
2464044644
3086535336
3496587845
2458168370
3464904641
3256584653
8304056580
9576134948
0144292039
4864380960
0887694940
6692938962
3939094039
8242683962
8034438740
8997990978
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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