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:
6366963666
9407479944
6260552206
8789991897
8269904128
6349999959
6245960091
9449363951
8209931017
0119791171
5809000085
1515414511
6701331800
0109345914
6509742196
0504795414
1919822989
5512459357
5482685245
2108551215
9941222999
6087373705
5082506956
6401404368
5182649844
0204250080
5164367765
6639996396
2117713742
3530323530
1599911960
0466415362
4562415920
3042363346
3656013536
7893393666
3232224324
5108656140
2282482942
5250555220
2089452224
5105425144
6031194722
1527280322
1112726144
3103001315
3623693863
5433002354
7840778104
7678833353
4979901864
0089931314
5033243264
8199732365
2635056536
5996889968
2246322732
8455959484
2438367298
2995965914
2615341046
8995005032
2246800750
8268988699
9052155255
8956885885
4808338004
9952366303
9066915023
9252137327
9066557120
9278989908
5207754039
1869683956
9263715176
8009724119
5069750077
8869696969
4283778333
9200880828
1229292422
2423414807
3237630663
3515784713
8141218607
1621512665
1848884817
0003002320
0200110707
3188888143
8649884689
6270862226
7048970449
3399333973
6898346593
6890814005
8047093506
7149883018
6070327087
8467064770
7878677878
4917549954
6177711161
7477567195
7177737797
7475797528
6517526172
7968675269
9367072107
3198392152
0706732308
9062692008
1891792187
3327772303
1633337108
2101082150
2224074022
9887136950
4217967553
7355666520
1661651673
9339936953
0499909970
6066661650
5445457524
3222332053
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
8513221332
9341666999
4321443222
2846770427
8542743225
2021608752
4011717108
8842205699
2241630981
2227708277
9320003099
6861885619
1956595196
8781893072
6952888212
9715237292
3580105299
7427335127
3478085467
9946695600
6566895902
3610691967
4911191984
0894099407
5660085062
5999095605
5975795967
2689590531
3614095256
2931361529
7619508247
2606333362
4611568511
6018266268
7689668768
3939003999
5051565334
0807097937
0848252537
2428095532
7048754876
7073707537
1114197142
6773767394
9579575937
2472888441
6665777776
8252929259
0272337772
0276968004
8272990090
0672854659
2562363744
8672868644
7910661710
6303303363
0235888350
4957151374
1938160464
1975854858
4327388502
4317190767
1200106691
8722315213
9711372507
9793174912
8493728207
6411336161
8796497958
3592722937
9703309070
8426121812
6100020197
9510553250
9589453033
6519527545
3219193111
6281060626
9180010808
6595596656
5507550553
9499199119
2212999122
9778797877
1756338661
9249703571
0312761957
1218142138
1759314721
0796783793
9132537211
0305403353
9598999995
9353539335
9935902119
1118987854
0512928377
9395536007
1372450998
8005889015
2391972139
2707220762
4991939519
3949279669
3496039562
7049822619
8287826069
9051889619
2348063026
2024045422
2327012269
2324725438
2964796214
4087008074
2243044040
5328998558
1203666332
8698166981
0820889092
2441428441
0027990780
3480898782
2128829981
3047599080
9043911991
7313789127
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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