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:
2246992229
3391913191
5010800008
4067974606
5581927209
7340915400
5067763581
2293988426
2097952716
5089200906
7744344967
8952249566
4501032907
0696330906
0000000206
6864449266
5471134517
0939202039
8030031708
6549946954
4416145516
9554995643
6393435919
8273191503
8157355574
7490446516
2547146649
9720272884
7469219999
9573247125
8103121382
7760117707
8106200018
9413234996
0073033300
0329233222
0060008606
6232225262
9999880924
3844338438
1973230639
8412484204
9604525239
2328625034
9985028629
6249028533
0211966933
2509487318
8916723689
6289992999
7501000705
9945444399
8416764881
0672476646
3535135533
5452252525
4177347177
7760576055
6425341343
3550117005
4230100831
7150278527
3430145104
0083075038
1197121997
6626536205
1897997809
2186076298
0160927199
2417631009
1207971937
4946471908
0929920255
3105894128
2834802223
6768894226
1155190155
2338334898
6422242266
7737917923
2042204222
7660770561
1873317238
2758785724
3818338396
5782438738
6122870385
2099227765
4498630731
7858038564
9822691263
3300333303
1515112455
1134554319
5304455283
2054914403
0918994314
7862831415
6170913335
0096608613
8529683183
4949326825
3234091383
9033393319
8381228183
8382323128
6400306643
8888881885
6675241312
3379041371
4031649493
1874679416
9277979572
4143341413
9611939961
8680080346
4099349392
3933111145
3135164312
4145112031
7545903686
0505150101
3107223232
3936663926
4641916444
7163561135
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
1516317311
2975357535
5451841414
0084114000
5953385787
0972210669
0556306016
0983396688
0055217760
4081404104
4613413116
7644666464
1503717712
7614964213
7003611762
6643721602
4611446215
4544606469
7772277122
7780720874
6646646466
6533536325
4810290822
9602407376
3575846426
8232597889
7876320176
1720900217
3408434444
2733222732
5622335254
1737329923
0630901735
1427454662
2720993613
1738337596
2907732795
2865333829
2692752925
5436858525
3959333599
7355758757
2861816829
9929559925
3173332371
1259698701
1888995721
9817798721
2907812291
9299992229
3203030301
1110910791
5696695226
7110408741
2237635495
2045134092
2550727422
4606875592
1905119895
5539535595
5757575572
2424224402
8802239028
3345171296
2061248476
0099451687
3111273411
7877778487
1111353131
4419141316
1960901699
3753113275
9111991491
4754254825
7979744397
7117111067
1957614887
8895171267
6051844887
3329144685
9118994428
8191075319
1558576339
6155285339
3118676475
1023772931
7117717172
9594445499
9691666149
3385882335
9626196262
8315989989
1062421164
3420552215
9617927034
2972114689
3026941098
9362507396
2076708401
8638663985
3533353355
4466444760
7983979085
1600853965
6363949705
8508932085
5446872650
2151052785
7284061665
4430571103
8414522148
2414502234
2412717442
0474574777
8050888800
7634073460
7284544498
9009279538
5896279143
1334476778
7626856042
9375959713
7377573531
4493196142
7377077340
0080857088
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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