## A Multiplication Based Logic Puzzle

### Numbers up to 820 with Exactly 12 Factors

Let’s begin with today’s puzzle. Afterwards I’ll tell you a little about the number 820 and why I decided to make a list of all the numbers up to 820 with exactly 12 factors.

Print the puzzles or type the solution on this excel file: 12 factors 815-820

Now here’s some information about the number 820:

• 820 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 820 = 2 × 2 × 5 × 41, which can be written 820 = 2² × 5 × 41
• The exponents in the prime factorization are 2, 1, and 1. Adding one to each and multiplying we get (2 + 1)(1 + 1)(1 + 1) = 3 x 2 x 2 = 12. Therefore 820 has exactly 12 factors.
• Factors of 820: 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 20, 41, 82, 164, 205, 410, 820
• Factor pairs: 820 = 1 × 820, 2 × 410, 4 × 205, 5 × 164, 10 × 82, or 20 × 41
• Taking the factor pair with the largest square number factor, we get √820 = (√4)(√205) = 2√205 ≈ 28.635642

820 is the sum of two squares two ways:

• 28² + 6² = 820
• 26² + 12² = 820

Because 5 and 41 are two of its prime factors, 820 is the hypotenuse of FOUR Pythagorean triples:

• 180-800-820 which is 20 times 9-40-41
• 336-748-820 which is 4 times 84-187-205, but it could also be calculated from 2(28)(6), 28² – 6², 28² + 6²
• 492-656-820 which is 164 times 3-4-5
• 532-624-820 which is 4 times 133-156-205, but it could also be calculated from 26² – 12², 2(26)(12),26² + 12²

Since 820 = (40×41)/2, we know that 820 is the 40th triangular number, thus

• 1 + 2 + 3 + . . . + 38 + 39 + 40 = 820

820 is also a palindrome in four other bases:

• 1010101 BASE 3 because 3⁶+3⁴+3²+3⁰=820
• 1111 BASE 9 because 9³+9²+9¹+9⁰=820
• 868 BASE 11 because 8(11²)+6(11¹)+8(11⁰)=820
• 1I1 BASE 21 (I is 18 base 10) because 21²+18(21¹)+21⁰=820

Below is a chart of the numbers up to 820 with exactly 12 factors. Notice that two sets of consecutive numbers, (735, 736) and (819, 820), are on the list. Look at their prime factorizations:

• 735=3×5×7², 736=2⁵×23
• 819=3²×7×13, 820=2²×5×41

Those prime factorizations mean that while 735 and 736 are the smallest consecutive numbers with exactly 12 factors, 819 and 820 are the smallest consecutive numbers whose prime factorizations consist of one prime number squared and exactly two other primes. Thanks to Stetson.edu for alerting me to that fact. Here’s something interesting about the chart: of the 77 numbers listed, only six are odd numbers.

So, how did I know what numbers to put on the list?

In order to determine how many numbers up to 820 have exactly 12 factors, we must first factor 12. We know that 12=12, 6×2, 4×3, and 3×2×2.

Next we subtract 1 from each of those factors to determine the exponents we need to use:

12 gives us 12-1=11. For prime number a, when is a¹¹ not larger than 820? Never, because 2¹¹>820.

6×2 gives us 6-1=5 and 2-1=1. For prime numbers a and b, with a≠b, when is ab¹ less than or equal to 820? These nine times:

• 2×3=96, 2×5=160, 2×7=224, 2×11=352,
• 2×13=416, 2×17=544, 2×19=608, 2×23=736
• 3×2=486

4×3 gives us 4-1=3 and 3-1=2. For prime numbers a and b, with a≠b, when is a³b² not larger than 820? These six times:

• 2³×3²=72, 2³×5²=200, 2³×7²=392
• 3³×2²=108, 3³×5²=675
• 5³×2²=500

3×2×2 gives us 3-1=2, 2-1=1, and 2-1=1. For distinct prime numbers a, b, and c, when is a²bc not larger than 820? 52 times. Here’s the breakdown: It happens 35 times when 2²=4 is the square number:

And it happens another 27 times when a prime number other than 2 is squared:

That’s a lot of numbers with exactly 12 factors! After I sorted all the numbers that I found in numerical order, I was able to make that chart of numbers up to 820 with exactly 12 factors, and yes 819 and 820 are the smallest two consecutive numbers whose prime factorization consists exactly of one prime number squared and two other prime numbers.

### 814 and Level 6

814 is even, so it is divisible by 2. What else is it divisible by? Let’s apply 11’s divisibility rule:

• 8 – 1 + 4 = 11, so 814 can also be evenly divided by 11. (If the sum of every other digit minus the sum of the missed digits is divisible by 11, then the number is divisible by 11.)

This Level 6 Puzzle is a doozie, but I assure you that it CAN BE be solved using logic without guessing and checking!

Print the puzzles or type the solution on this excel file: 10-factors 807-814

Now here’s a little bit more about the number 814:

• 814 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 814 = 2 x 11 x 37
• The exponents in the prime factorization are 1, 1, and 1. Adding one to each and multiplying we get (1 + 1)(1 + 1)(1 + 1) = 2 x 2 x 2 = 8. Therefore 814 has exactly 8 factors.
• Factors of 814: 1, 2, 11, 22, 37, 74, 407, 814
• Factor pairs: 814 = 1 x 814, 2 x 407, 11 x 74, or 22 x 37
• 814 has no square factors that allow its square root to be simplified. √814 ≈ 28.530685

Because 37 is one of its factors, 814 is the hypotenuse of a Pythagorean triple:

• 264-770-814 which is 22 times (12-35-37)

814 is also repddigit MM in BASE 36 (M is 22 base 10) because 22(36) + 22(1) = 22(36 + 1) = 22 × 37 = 814

### 812 How Many Triangles in All?

Here’s a puzzle for you. How many total triangles are there in the figure below?

Okay, if you guessed 812 because this is my 812th post, you would be right. But what if you were asked that question in some real world situation where accessing the internet to get the answer isn’t permitted. How would you know the answer then?

True, you might have memorized the formula I mentioned in 658-How Many Triangles Point Up? How Many Triangles Point Down? How Many Triangles in All?:

• The total number of triangles = ⌊n(n+2)(2n+1)/8⌋ where the brackets mean round decimals DOWN to the closest integer.
• Here n = 14, so the number of triangles is 14×16×29/8 = 812. Rounding down wasn’t necessary since the product of two consecutive even numbers is always divisible by 8.

Still, you probably wouldn’t remember that formula unless you had seen it VERY recently or you have a photographic memory.

You could actually COUNT all the triangles. In the post about 658 total triangles, I noted that the 13 rows of small triangles formed a total of 169 of the smallest triangles, but I suggested that it would be easier to ignore that nice square number and instead count the number of triangles pointing UP separately from the number pointing DOWN. You will add up a lot of triangular numbers as you sum up the number of them pointing up and again as you sum up the number pointing down.

Making a chart of the number of triangles pointing UP would be easy. It’s just a list of triangular numbers in order. However, the chart for the ones pointing down might be confusing because you don’t use all of the triangular numbers, and the ones you use will be different for an even number of rows than for an odd number of rows. For example,

• the pointing DOWN portion of the chart for 14 rows of triangles below uses these seven triangular numbers: 1, 6, 15, 28, 45, 66, and 91,
• while the pointing DOWN chart for 13 rows of triangles uses six different triangular numbers: 3, 10, 21, 36, 55, and 78.

Here is a chart listing the number of triangles of any size that are contained in a triangular figure made with 14 rows of small triangles. Interesting note: Because 14 + 2 = 16, a multiple of 8, the total number of triangles in this case will be divisible by 14, the number of line segments on each side.

Making such a chart works. However, remembering  which triangular numbers to use and how many you should use, especially when counting the odd number of rows of triangles pointing DOWN, might be difficult.

Today I was thinking about triangular numbers and their relationship to square numbers:

• The sum of two consecutive triangular numbers always makes a square number. On the chart above, I’ve paired up certain consecutive triangular numbers by coloring them the same color. The sizes of the triangles being paired together by like colors are not the same size (with one exception), but their sums are nevertheless square numbers every time.
• Thus, we also can come up with a single list of numbers to add to arrive at the total number of triangles as illustrated below. This has made me changed my mind about using those square numbers to help count! Notice how every other number on each list below, including the last number to be added, is a square number.

Of the methods discussed in this post, this one that includes square numbers might be the easiest one to remember. Here are the steps I used to find the total number of triangles:

• Count the rows and determine if that number is even or odd.
• Write the triangular numbers in order until the amount of numbers written equals the number of rows.
• If the number of rows is even, replace the 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc. entries with corresponding square numbers: 4, 16, 36, etc.
• If the number of rows is odd, replace the 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc entries with corresponding square numbers: 1, 9, 25, etc.
• Add all the numbers remaining in the list. The sum will be the total number of triangles for that many rows of small triangles.

Okay, that puzzle was rather difficult and took a while to explain. You may find this Level 4 puzzle to be easier:

Print the puzzles or type the solution on this excel file: 10-factors 807-814

Here’s a little more about the number 812:

• 812 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 812 = 2 x 2 x 7 x 29, which can be written 812 = (2^2) x 7 x 29
• The exponents in the prime factorization are 2, 1, and 1. Adding one to each and multiplying we get (2 + 1)(1 + 1)(1 + 1) = 3 x 2 x 2 = 12. Therefore 812 has exactly 12 factors.
• Factors of 812: 1, 2, 4, 7, 14, 28, 29, 58, 116, 203, 406, 812
• Factor pairs: 812 = 1 x 812, 2 x 406, 4 x 203, 7 x 116, 14 x 58, or 28 x 29
• Taking the factor pair with the largest square number factor, we get √812 = (√4)(√203) = 2√203 ≈ 28.4956 (That was three multiples of 7)

812 = 28 × 29, which means it is the sum of the first 28 even numbers.

• Thus, 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 + . . .  + 52 + 54 + 56 = 812

It also means that we are halfway between 28² and 29², or halfway between 784 and 841. The average of those two numbers is 812.5.

AND it means that 28² + 29² – 1 = 2(812) = 2(28 × 29)

Since 29 is one of its factors, 812 is also the hypotenuse of a Pythagorean triple:

• 560-588-812 which is 28 times 20-21-29.

### 811 My Youngest Grandchild

My youngest grandchild is 7 months old and is just beginning to crawl. I love the way he wipes drool off his own face in this video. It’s pretty funny.

Here’s today’s puzzle:

Print the puzzles or type the solution on this excel file: 10-factors 807-814

• 811 is a prime number.
• Prime factorization: 811 is prime and cannot be factored.
• The exponent of prime number 811 is 1. Adding 1 to that exponent we get (1 + 1) = 2. Therefore 811 has exactly 2 factors.
• Factors of 811: 1, 811
• Factor pairs: 811 = 1 x 811
• 811 has no square factors that allow its square root to be simplified. √811 ≈ 28.4780617

How do we know that 811 is a prime number? If 811 were not a prime number, then it would be divisible by at least one prime number less than or equal to √811 ≈ 28.5. Since 811 cannot be divided evenly by 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, or 23, we know that 811 is a prime number.

811 is the second half of a twin prime, and it is also the sum of five consecutive prime numbers:

• 151 + 157 + 163 + 167 + 173 = 811.

Stetson.edu informs us that the smallest prime factor of 24!+1 is 811. Wow! Really?

• If you type 24!+1 into your computer calculator you get 620,448,401,733,239,439,360,001.
• If you divide that number by 811, you get 765,041,185,860,961,084,291.
• If you type that into Number Empire’s Prime Number Checker, you will see that it is prime.

• Thus 811 is the smaller of 24!+1’s two prime factors!

### 810 Stick and Stone

Print the puzzles or type the solution on this excel file: 10-factors 807-814

One of my education professors taught that you can teach any concept with a picture book.

I recently read the book, Stick and Stone, to a class of 6th graders. Yes, 6th graders. You can get away with reading something way below grade level if you tell them before you start reading that you will use the book to introduce them to something that is definitely NOT below grade level. The first few pages of the book are shared by its publisher here:

As you can see, those first few pages equate stone as a zero and stick as a lonely number one.

The middle part of the book teaches about synergizing, working together to make life good and helping each other through tough times.

By the end of the book Stick and Stone know how to work very well together, “Stick, Stone. Together again. Stick, Stone. A perfect ten.”

The book pretty much ends there, but making a perfect ten is only the beginning of what these two characters can do together. I used this book to teach the class not only about getting along and working together, but also about base 2, or binary as it is also called. Every counting number we know can be represented by using just 1’s and 0’s. I wrote on the board the numbers from 1 to 16 and represented the first few of those numbers in base 2. Then I invited class members to come up with how to write the rest of the numbers in base 2. Some students caught on immediately while the others were able to learn how to do it by watching their classmates and listening to them. Eventually with at least 12 different student’s inputs, we came up with a chart that looked something like this:

Notice that the numbers from 9 to 15 are just 1000 plus the numbers directly across from them in the first column.

Some of the sixth grade students had already heard of binary, so I showed them a little more about base 2: I wrote a bunch of 1’s and 0’s “off the top of my head” onto the board and added the headings to show place values: 1’s place, 2’s place, etc.

Then I told them to sum up the place values that contained a one:

Stick and Stone are the main two characters, but the book has one other character, Pinecone. At first Pinecone bullied Stone, but after Stick stood up to him, the three of them were eventually able to become friends. You might enjoy finding out more about Pinecone by listening to Sean Anderson read the entire book to his children, one of which seems to really enjoy numbers.

If you used a unique symbol to represent Pinecone, it could look like a 2. Then you also could use the symbols 0, 1, and 2 to represent every counting number in base 3. That’s another concept the picture book Stick and Stone could be used to introduce!

To make a chart for base 3, start with these 3 columns of numbers with 3 numbers in each:

Since this is base 3, where should 10 and 100 go? The bottom of the first column and the bottom of the third column both MUST look like a power of 10. The rest of the chart is easy to fill out. Notice the 1 and 2 look exactly the same in base 10 and base 3. Also since 4 = 3 + 1, 5 = 3 + 2, and 6 = 3 + 3, we can easily fill in the 2nd column. Two more addition facts will finish the third column: 7 = 6 + 1, and 8 = 6 + 2.

Now add what you learned about 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 to column 1 and put the numbers 10 – 18 in the base 10 second column and numbers 19 – 27 in the base 10 third column. Again the bottom of the first column and the bottom of the third column both MUST look like a power of 10, so we now know where to put 1000.

To fill in the rest of the chart simply add 100 to the base 3 numbers in column 1 to get the the base 3 numbers in column 2. Then add 200 to the base 3 numbers in column 1 to get the remaining base 3 numbers in column 3.

You could do this process again to determine the first 81 counting numbers in base 3 with 81 being represented by 10000.

For base 4, you could do something similar with 4 columns. However, for counting in bases 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 I would suggest using the very versatile hundred chart. You can give instructions without even mentioning the concept of differing bases. For example, cross out every number on the hundred chart that has 7, 8, or 9 as one or more of its digits. Can you tell even before you get started how many numbers will get crossed out? (100 – 7²) What pattern do the cross-outs make? If you arrange the remaining numbers in order from smallest to largest, then you will have the first 49 numbers represented in base 7. With a minimal amount of cutting and taping you could have a “hundred” chart in base 7. Easy peasy.

This excel file not only has several puzzles, including today’s, but also a hundred chart and even a thousand chart because I know some of you might want to play with 3-digit numbers, too.

Now let me tell you a little bit about the number 810:

• 810 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 810 = 2 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 5, which can be written 810 = 2 x $3^4$ x 5
• The exponents in the prime factorization are 1, 4 and 1. Adding one to each and multiplying we get (1 + 1)(4 + 1)(1 + 1) = 2 x 5 x 2 = 20. Therefore 810 has exactly 20 factors.
• Factors of 810: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 15, 18, 27, 30, 45, 54, 81, 90, 135, 162, 270, 405, 810
• Factor pairs: 810 = 1 x 810, 2 x 405, 3 x 270, 5 x 162, 6 x 135, 9 x 90, 10 x 81, 15 x 54, 18 x 45 or 27 x 30
• Taking the factor pair with the largest square number factor, we get √810 = (√81)(√10) = 9√10 ≈ 28.4604989.

Since 810 has so many factors, it has MANY possible factor trees. If most people made a factor tree for 810, they would probably start with 81 × 10 or 9 x 90. NOT ME! Here are two less-often-used factor trees for 810:

Finally, here is an easy way to express 810 is in a different base:

1. Make a cake in which you divide 810 by the base number repeatedly, keeping track of the remainders, including zero, as you go.
2. Keep dividing until the number at the top of the cake is 0.
3. List the remainders in order from top to bottom and indicate the base you used to do the division.
4. This method is illustrated for BASE 2 and BASE 3 below:

That’s all pretty good work for a stone, a stick, and a pine cone!

By the way, using that method will also produce the following results:

• 810 is 30222 BASE 4
• 810 is 11220 BASE 5
• 810 is 3430 BASE 6 and so forth.

### 807 and Level 1

What can I say about the number 807?

807 is palindrome 151 in BASE 26 because 1(26²) + 5(26) + 1(1) = 807.

Anything else? Well, I can figure out a few other things because 807’s has two prime factors, 3 and 269:

We can write ANY number (unless it’s a power of 2) as the sum of consecutive numbers in at least one way. 807 has three different ways to do that:

• 403 + 404 = 807 because 807 isn’t divisible by 2.
• 268 + 269 + 270 = 807 because it is divisible by 3.
• 132 + 133 + 134 + 135 + 136 + 137 = 807 since it is divisible by 3 but not by 6.

I know that one of 807’s factors, 269, is a hypotenuse of a Pythagorean triple, so 807 is also. Thus. . .

• (3·69)² + (3·260)² = (3·269)², or in other words, 207² + 780² = 807²

Since 807 has two odd sets of factor pairs, I know that 807 can be written as the difference of two squares two different ways:

• 136² – 133² = 807
• 404² – 403² = 807

I don’t usually do this, but today’s puzzle has something in common with 807. Can you tell what it is?

Print the puzzles or type the solution on this excel file: 10-factors 807-814

• 807 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 807 = 3 x 269
• The exponents in the prime factorization are 1 and 1. Adding one to each and multiplying we get (1 + 1)(1 + 1) = 2 x 2 = 4. Therefore 807 has exactly 4 factors.
• Factors of 807: 1, 3, 269, 807
• Factor pairs: 807 = 1 x 807 or 3 x 269
• 807 has no square factors that allow its square root to be simplified. √807 ≈ 28.4077454

### 802 Pi Day at Smith’s

In the United States tomorrow’s date is written 3-14. Because 3.14 is a famous approximation for π (pi), people all over the country will eat pie to celebrate Pi Day. This afternoon I took a picture of this sign and the pie display at my local Smith’s Food and Drug.

I took that picture right when I walked into the store, but there were no pies on display for National Pi Day.

About 15 minutes later I returned to the display to take another picture. Now there were pies on the table! I told a salesperson who I think worked on the display that I was going to take a picture and put it on my blog. She asked what kind of a blog I wrote. I told her a math blog. She looked puzzled and asked why I would want to put a picture of pies on a math blog. Then she turned around, looked at the display, and said something like, “Oh, now I get it, the number pi.”

How do you choose between apple, cherry, or peach pie? It’s much easier if you choose two and then you can get a free 8 oz. Cool Whip, too. Yummy.

If by chance you prefer pizza pi, here’s a thought from twitter that is often repeated in March:

And here’s some original artwork that displays pi in a way I had never thought of before:

BREAKING: secret of Pi revealed #PiDay pic.twitter.com/Ao8BQp31jd

You can also look here for a million digits of pi.

But pi is not the only interesting number in the world. Every number has its own curiosities. Let me tell you some reasons to get excited about the number 802:

802 is the sum of two squares:

• 21² + 19² = 802

So 802 is the hypotenuse of a Pythagorean triple:

• 80-798-802, which is 2 times another triple: 40-399-401.

It also means something else: Since odd numbers 21 and 19 have no common prime factors, 802 can be evenly divide by 2. Duh. . ., but it also means that unless 802 is also divisible by 5, 13, or 17, its only factors will be 2 and a prime number! Why are those three numbers the only ones I care about? Because they are the only prime number Pythagorean triple hypotenuses less than √802 ≈ 28.3.

Guess what? 5, 13, and 17 do not divide evenly into 802, so 802 is the product of 2 and a prime number which happens to be 401.

• 802 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 802 = 2 x 401
• The exponents in the prime factorization are 1 and 1. Adding one to each exponent and multiplying we get (1 + 1)(1 + 1) = 2 x 2 = 4. Therefore 802 has exactly 4 factors.
• Factors of 802: 1, 2, 401, 802
• Factor pairs: 802 = 1 x 802 or 2 x 401
• 802 has no square factors that allow its square root to be simplified. √802 ≈ 28.3196045

Today’s puzzle is number 802 to distinguish it from every other puzzle I’ve made. Writing the numbers 1 – 10 in both the top row and the first column so that the factors and the clues work together as a multiplication table is as easy as pie!

Print the puzzles or type the solution on this excel file: 10-factors 801-806

And here is a little more about the number 802:

802 is the sum of 8 consecutive prime numbers:

• 83 + 89 + 97 + 101 + 103 + 107 + 109 + 113 = 802

802 can also be written as the sum of three squares three different ways:

• 28² + 3² + 3² = 802
• 27² + 8² + 3² = 802
• 24² + 15² + 1² = 802

802 is also a palindrome in two other bases:

• 414 BASE 14 because 4(196) + 1(14) + 4(1) = 802
• 202 BASE 20 because 2(400) + 0(20) + 2(1) = 802