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:
4440494400
0642473246
7017013076
3119113921
0841073974
8540193801
2093993076
0953213174
7191876276
3873993978
8122112118
3847423984
7070373710
7973292114
0034683918
1670373174
6747423988
1738172974
5097179401
2050082500
6511565615
9096956095
8659459040
1393760545
2949889605
8990255098
5061686405
2925192199
1887448887
2085802055
6901797086
2035320755
2986435555
1435861752
2925728731
2407864056
6153990697
4514404642
1873260021
4341891242
7999996227
1416164671
0462000642
1086101668
0459448795
1351142238
0057725303
0057800758
0559746928
7087770877
6309896348
5650750065
0557975579
5431134141
6364296023
3773327637
1929881249
3979393397
8637498647
5240128912
8998493997
8207586019
2234298335
4696749607
9198889149
5015010057
6965516465
6775856749
7880489044
7591949647
8493685759
5052715100
9208465030
4028944135
4022357714
8420921162
1098393038
8092482044
4400040004
5400999900
8228122328
7783778315
5853993518
6666663968
7655797625
0931098515
2143497978
1919393325
4855098415
4453293628
7555606565
2962696426
0040420844
5133135331
1977435566
5998496321
3471035865
4893675341
1292070024
3362078156
3316572117
1248694553
8390093663
6941194116
7673673667
3355318533
2341792417
9927272951
7297287672
7197255158
2397070431
7138968711
2670999782
7197471914
8931221199
5468086488
2277444222
2020229102
7047749517
1722501725
9956956999
1779659715
5743121505
8929026982
5927301707
2029649719
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
7161103305
0826808075
8504855242
4262678969
2252959902
7222575242
1888818315
5565553265
6970007009
4274070872
8797998759
0687414792
1944490159
9999998599
2522080852
5452442154
4533510543
7877114771
8005204615
6931393907
8638246415
3214094623
3763573615
2626606423
4954445105
9902997920
3447474663
2263532603
9835052470
8222422059
1847986933
8263538566
0837030730
9365595399
2022929022
1448088030
9328962563
2194968148
9839465744
4929307575
4329555334
7530957000
7938443833
9494343391
2819398918
3761463361
6158611665
5478447434
9059353900
5758342987
6763366753
7759311447
3751324264
5051309506
2223622232
5858085050
2838222832
9503119533
4855563805
2858297963
4258693983
4201180750
9838637376
8758171158
7428078843
1556661156
3558993358
3558948096
1428863500
7458159253
1858117210
8458626877
1246781386
3711759989
2611501134
8216742157
2742177241
2116116666
8371711171
5273535623
3603232636
7460008946
8228229598
5688581655
1629110692
0264610995
1320119549
0880689586
9439289598
1275910648
1384008834
0009303370
4588388884
6615959556
6689942308
0385191706
0614392510
0518344786
5688066039
1438298292
5483298096
6284198134
7086818894
7377378235
9951494194
8076878064
6621996312
7771117897
3590005069
2428888244
5974252774
8180550585
5426945994
5170895300
5598900365
5178061986
5986177802
4722944922
1911991104
2272929227
1110110240
6521899152
2546549746
1009124154
0180610904
6471892121
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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