Sequential Squares -- A005842

[Richard Guy]

I apologize for any sins of commission or
omission on my part.  In this problem, and
in the similar one of Mrs Perkins's quilt,
I don't know how one PROVES anything, apart
from doing brute force computer searches.

R.

On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, N. J. A. Sloane wrote:

> Gordon Royle said:
> The description of this A005842 is
> 
> "Smallest square that contains all squares of side 1, .. , n"
> 
> There is no indication anywhere of whether these are proven values, or 
> "best currently known" values.
> 
> It would be really useful if this kind of information were incorporated 
> into the entries so that viewers know the boundaries between knowledge 
> and research problem...
> 
> 
> Me:
> I was assured by Ed Pegg that these entries were proved to be correct.
> Otherwise I would have indicated that they were only conjectures.
> 
> Neil
>