Tomorrow is Mikulás (Saint Nicholas Day) in Hungary. Children will awake to find candy, fruit, or nuts in their polished shoes or boots because every boy and every girl has been at least a little bit good all year long.
Because they have also been at least a little bit naughty, they will also find virgács in those same shoes or boots. Virgács are little twigs that have been spray-painted gold and tied together at the top with red ribbon.
Santa is so busy this time of year, that I thought I would give him a helping hand. I’ve made some virgács for YOUR boots or shoes!
Start at the top of the puzzle and work your way down cell by cell to solve this Level 3 puzzle. Oh, but I’ve been just a little bit naughty making this puzzle: you will need to look at later clues to figure out what factors to give to 40. Will clue 40 use a 5 or a 10? Look at clues 60 and 90, and you will have only one choice for that answer. Then you can forgive my tiny bit of naughtiness.
Now I’ll tell you a few facts about the puzzle number, 1445:
- 1445 is a composite number.
- Prime factorization: 1445 = 5 × 17 × 17, which can be written 1445 = 5 × 17²
- 1445 has at least one exponent greater than 1 in its prime factorization so √1445 can be simplified. Taking the factor pair from the factor pair table below with the largest square number factor, we get √1445 = (√289)(√5) = 17√5
- The exponents in the prime factorization are 1 and 2. Adding one to each exponent and multiplying we get (1 + 1)(2 + 1) = 2 × 3 = 6. Therefore 1445 has exactly 6 factors.
- The factors of 1445 are outlined with their factor pair partners in the graphic below.
1445 is the sum of two squares in THREE different ways:
31² + 22² = 1445
34² + 17² = 1445
38² + 1² = 1445
1445 is the hypotenuse of SEVEN Pythagorean triples:
76-1443-1445 calculated from 2(38)(1), 38² – 1², 38² + 1²
221-1428-1445 which is 17 times (13-84-85)
477-1364-1445 calculated from 31² – 22², 2(31)(22), 31² + 22²
612-1309-1445 which is 17 times (36-77-85)
680-1275-1445 which is (8-15-17) times 85
805-1200-1445 which is 5 times (161-240-289)
867-1156-1445 which is (3-4-5) times 289 and can
also be calculated from 34² – 17², 2(34)(17), 34² + 17²