Here is the second puzzle in a week’s worth of mystery level puzzles. Will it be very difficult or not so bad? That’s the mystery. You’ll have to try it to know for sure. You only need to use logic and your knowledge of the multiplication table to solve it. I wish you luck!

Print the puzzles or type the solution in this excel file: 10-factors-1019-1027

That puzzle may have been a mystery, but the number 1021 isn’t much of a mystery at all. It is the second number of twin primes, 1019 and 1021.

Since it is a prime number, and it has a remainder of one when it is divided by 4, it can be written as the sum of two squares:
30² + 11² = 1021.

Since it can be written as the sum of two squares, it is the hypotenuse of a Pythagorean triple:
660-779-1021 calculated from 2(30)(11), 30² – 11², 30² + 11²

It is also palindrome 141 in BASE 30 because 1(30²) + 4(30) + 1(1) = 1021

• 1021 is a prime number.
• Prime factorization: 1021 is prime.
• The exponent of prime number 1021 is 1. Adding 1 to that exponent we get (1 + 1) = 2. Therefore 1021 has exactly 2 factors.
• Factors of 1021: 1, 1021
• Factor pairs: 1021 = 1 × 1021
• 1021 has no square factors that allow its square root to be simplified. √1021 ≈ 31.95309

How do we know that 1021 is a prime number? If 1021 were not a prime number, then it would be divisible by at least one prime number less than or equal to √1021 ≈ 31.95. Since 1021 cannot be divided evenly by 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29 or 31, we know that 1021 is a prime number.

Here’s another way we know that 1021 is a prime number: Since its last two digits divided by 4 leave a remainder of 1, and 30² + 11² = 1021 with 30 and 11 having no common prime factors, 1021 will be prime unless it is divisible by a prime number Pythagorean triple hypotenuse less than or equal to √1021 ≈ 31.95. Since 1021 is not divisible by 5, 13, 17, or 29, we know that 1021 is a prime number.