> "Prince Rupert's Problem" is the question whether one can make a hole
> in a cube so that another but congruent cube passes through it. The
> answer is "yes" (The quadrangled face of the cube is a little smaller
> than the maximal (regular) sixsided face.) But I should like to know
> who was this Prince Rupert, why is the problem named after him, and
> when it happened. Can anybody answer it?
<q>
1685 Wallis: De Algebra Tractatus - first publication of Prince
Rupert's Problem.
</q>
CHRONOLOGY OF RECREATIONAL MATHEMATICS by David Singmaster
http://anduin.eldar.org/~problemi/singmast/recchron.html
<q>
6.O. Passing a Cube Through an Equal or Smaller One - Prince
Rupert's Problem. Schrek, SM 16 (1950) 73-80 & 261-267, gives the history
of this and it is apparently really due to Prince Rupert. Wallis was the
first to write on it and Pieter Nieuwland found the maximal cube which will
pass through a cube. This appears in J. H. van Swinden, Grondbeginsels der
Meetkunde, 1816 and in the German edition of C. F. A. Jacobi, Elemente der
Geometrie. Can anyone supply copies? Hennessy, Phil. Mag. (1895), says he
has a model which may be the example made for Philip Ronayne (18C), another
inventor(?) of the problem. Where is this model? U. Graf (1941) also had a
model made - where is it?
</q>
QUERIES ON "SOURCES IN RECREATIONAL MATHEMATICS" by David Singmaster
http://anduin.eldar.org/~problemi/singmast/queries.html
References (from Prince Rupert's Cubes entry in TTM)
Cundy, H. and Rollett, A.: Prince Rupert's Cubes.
3.15.2 in Mathematical Models, 3rd ed.
Stradbroke, England: Tarquin Pub., pp. 157-158, 1989.
Schrek, D. J. E.: Prince Rupert's Problem and Its Extension by Pieter
Nieuwland.
Scripta Math. 16, 73-80 and 261-267, 1950.
Wells, D. The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Geometry.
London: Penguin, p. 195, 1991.
http://www.treasure-troves.com/math/PrinceRupertsCube.html
Antreas