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:
7080001860
8749847989
6716607691
8733378382
6752037661
6942307881
1090578881
9050407682
0060804639
6222886829
7372932597
6864636168
3436335694
4887476517
6064086257
3102485567
9937136297
5840332269
1662216112
1255757757
3544242456
5713157313
5054140518
3254886888
1755230876
5052178330
5614344098
9980788767
5920287485
3842541512
0956527488
5882775877
3990599395
9040779947
0256665022
6355256357
5775775051
1508831985
5525555125
6939939796
4463438781
5695081085
9518038763
8006278785
6432585091
2552225275
2605265255
1687557881
5452111515
4552529909
2115264330
5655248452
2455215004
2614977261
1231424234
4752323542
9749399977
7660177577
1291144296
9740161136
5261336040
9249309524
1239365279
0270280440
3533956478
2993886641
5096850471
1133110335
1677446176
4686850648
4216126421
5148886441
9398077947
2698502109
4401735589
5498720836
4498797438
5991555191
6293723267
9607060606
9388686893
8425228888
9819585695
6436838366
3709373330
3472342840
6729378026
6435377168
6802854857
6779765269
3751670435
1018631985
6943870835
1710230935
0905590875
2162251276
7303070137
9181591585
3330932938
9927272722
7711878717
4229041942
1498334111
6999324609
1729880037
9292840533
1398267193
6627064662
8013701501
8578488848
3438333388
3878131733
8033748643
8833292443
8438366095
6068228366
3072375606
7422142724
3002003000
6648184614
4949999499
3122965177
4601176092
6402076736
7171950803
5142947992
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
6807808886
3329333332
7686282816
5662335632
5332988654
6802050101
9602903824
9686876211
5836874126
1994146398
4811389548
6288209208
0617697350
9999999698
1544844851
8987487948
3990609306
5850006500
1618659186
6669680661
2793275392
5532953922
9383659972
4816103692
2657353176
6369385975
2420653962
1688814525
3427700922
3467740154
3461908177
0487990780
1466046166
3427626224
3668736336
9161661163
5385327809
8154142088
8114061227
8983966092
0183933190
4815384885
8149018087
3954843985
5377057330
3878388375
0554780457
9299991229
7671996570
0810431095
3958380597
9242391255
1899938027
9134792075
8007270820
6576667586
8878478849
5707575907
9407679002
2274179507
3056268850
0096177849
8706378846
4212242122
9775578655
7056766570
1575151751
1863878752
3835602171
5465446725
0579655755
5869662552
0003909073
4975665492
6746176461
7272772887
7271275887
1193707832
1327879677
7234157483
9728566482
1560821496
5561067042
5461889913
3527180261
7567157571
0726446404
3431043643
1560810006
5329822235
9684348834
5916716596
3134636861
7441171171
9611967677
9515794433
7147736081
3634627166
5136959861
3601943301
3124982533
3881686048
7741900068
3746973933
5601065006
3128911171
7856688786
3684223266
9068131054
4880063095
0092966955
3291878857
7775776557
8118661855
4446664994
0058960759
2880838020
7676559677
6866683836
2258505842
3354333463
8388655653
6162333666
8092284432
9580853462
0345609426
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.
Post a comment