Henry Ernest Dudeney/Modern Puzzles/178 - The Seven-Pointed Star/Historical Note

Historical Note on Modern Puzzles by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $178$ - The Seven-Pointed Star

Martin Gardner reported this problem in his Mathematical Games column in Scientific American in the December $1965$ issue.

In correspondence, he received confirmation from Mrs. Peter W. Montgomery that there are in fact $72$ patterns for this seven-pointed star, rather than the $56$ offered by Dudeney.

This was confirmed by the independent work of E.J. Ulrich and A. Domergue.

In $1966$, Alan Moldon used a computer at the University of Waterloo in Ontario to confirm the $72$ solutions.

Sources

• 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Answers: $395$. The Seven-Pointed Star
• 1975: Martin Gardner: Mathematical Carnival: $5$: Magic Stars and Polyhedrons