Today’s Puzzle:

Merriam-Webster defines a bridge as “a structure carrying a pathway or roadway over a depression or obstacle (such as a river)”. Bridges have been built over wide rivers, but what type of bridge is needed when the obstacle is prejudice, hate, or greed?

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States. He tirelessly worked on such bridges. The movie, Selma, portrays much of what he and his companions did to cross a certain bridge in Alabama.  Although ALL of his protests were peaceful, some who followed him were brutally killed. Dr. King himself was assassinated when he was just 39 years old.

Today bridges still need to be built. Education can be an important bridge-builder. If you have Netflix, type “Martin Luther King” into the search, and several eye-opening movies and documentaries will appear. I highly recommend 13th, a documentary that shows how the same amendment to the constitution that abolished slavery has a loophole that essentially allows slavery to continue to this day. I was appalled.

The puzzle below is easy to solve. How to build bridges that make the world better for EVERYONE is a far more important and difficult puzzle that each of us needs to ponder to get closer to a solution.

Factors of 1577:

• 1577 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 1577 = 19 × 83.
• 1577 has no exponents greater than 1 in its prime factorization, so √1577 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 1577 has exactly 4 factors.
• The factors of 1577 are outlined with their factor pair partners in the graphic below.

More about the Number 1577:

1577 is the difference of two squares two different ways:
789² – 788² = 1577, and
51² – 32² = 1577.

1577 is the sum of the 2 numbers from 788 to 789.
1577 is the sum of the 19 numbers from 74 to 92. (83 is in the exact middle of that list of numbers.)
1577 is the sum of the 38 numbers from 23 to 60.