How High You Can Drop
It is your task to determine how high you can drop a billiard ball without it breaking. There is a 100 story building and you must determine which is the highest floor you can drop a ball from without it breaking. You have only two billiard balls to use as test objects, if both of them break before you determine the answer then you have failed at your task. How can you determine the breaking point in which the maximum necessary dropping is at a minimum?
Answer:
First drop the first ball from the 14th floor. If it breaks you can determine the exact breaking point with the other ball in at most 13 more droppings, starting at the bottom and going up one floor at a time.
If the first ball survives the 14 floor drop then drop it again from the 27th (14+13) floor. If it breaks you can determine the exact breaking point with at most 12 more droppings.
If the first ball survives the 27 floor drop then drop it again from the 39th (14+13+12) floor. If it breaks you can determine the exact breaking point with at most 11 more droppings.
Keep repeating this process always going up one less floor than the last dropping until the first ball breaks. If it breaks on the x'th dropping you will only need at most (14-x) more droppings with the second ball to find the breaking point. By the 11th dropping of the first ball, if you get that far, you will have reached the 99th floor.