Today’s Puzzle:

Children living in Hungary put their nicely polished boots or stockings by a window for Mikulás (Saint Nicholas) to fill tonight. When they awake in the morning, they will find candies, and maybe nuts or fruit to reward them for the good they’ve done this past year. Because even the best children have been at least a little bit naughty sometime during the year, they will also find virgács, gold-painted twigs typically bound together with red ribbon. Now, if a child lives in a place where virgács is not available at the local market, Mikulás could copy today’s virgács puzzle and put it in any boot or stocking left out for him tonight.

Since this is a level 3 puzzle, the clues are listed in a logical order from the top of the puzzle to the bottom. After the factors of 12 and 40 are put in their respective cells, the rest of the factors can be found by working down the puzzle cell by cell until all the factors are written in.

Factors of 1561:

• 1561 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 1561 = 7 × 223.
• 1561 has no exponents greater than 1 in its prime factorization, so √1561 cannot be simplified.
• The exponents in the prime factorization are 1 and 1. Adding one to each exponent and multiplying we get (1 + 1)(1 + 1) = 2 × 2 = 4. Therefore 1561 has exactly 4 factors.
• The factors of 1561 are outlined with their factor pair partners in the graphic below.

More about the Number 1561:

1561 is the sum of two consecutive numbers:
780 + 781 = 1561.

1561 is also the difference of two consecutive square numbers:
781² – 780² = 1561.

Did you notice a pattern in those two statements?

1561 is the sum of seven consecutive numbers:
220 + 221 + 222 + 223 + 224 + 225 + 226 = 1561.

1561 is the sum of the fourteen consecutive numbers from 105 to 118.

1561 is the difference of these two other square numbers:
115² – 108² = 1561.

Did you notice any other patterns? Does your pattern hold true for other multiples of 7?