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A Clothes Call

A man went to a draper and bought a length of cloth 35 braccia long to make a suit of clothes.  The draper told him that when it was shrunk and clipped, every 7 braccia would shrink 1 braccia.  The man took him at his word, but instead, for every 6 braccia, the cloth shrank 1.  How much cloth did the man lack?

General Trattato di Numeri et Misure (General Treatise on Number and Measure), Tartaglia, 1556

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"A Clothes Call," Convergence (July 2006)