Suppose I have a series of strips of paper placed along an infinite ruler, with start and end points specified by pairs of numbers. I would like to create a list representing the number of layers of paper at points along the ruler.

For example:

strips = 
    {{-27,  20},
     { -2,  -1},
     {-47, -28},
     {-41,  32},
     { 22,  31},
     {  2,  37},
     {-28,  30}, 
     { -7,  39}}

Should output:

-47 -41 -27  -7  -2  -1   2  20  22  30  31  32  37  39
  1   2   3   4   5   4   5   4   5   4   3   2   1   0

What is the most efficient, clean, or terse way to do this, accommodating Real and Rational strip positions?

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