Henry Ernest Dudeney/Modern Puzzles/180 - The Damaged Measure/Historical Note
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Historical Note on Modern Puzzles by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $180$ - The Damaged Measure
Martin Gardner reported in $1968$ that no general rule had yet been found for the ruler problem.
However, considerable progress had been made since Dudeney first proposed it.
In particular, John Leech discovered in $1956$ that eight marks are sufficient to mark a $36$-inch ruler so that all integer lengths from $1$ to $36$ can be measured, outdoing Dudeney's solution by $3$ inches.
Sources
- 1956: John Leech: On the Representation of $1, 2, \ldots, n$ by Differences (J. London Math. Soc. Vol. 31: pp. 160 – 169)
- 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Answers: $453$. The Damaged Measure