Berkeley Math Circle Monthly Contest 6 #0hrz
From module Strategy and Write-up Structure
Understand the scale
Problem
Problem:
The Moria Indestructible Phone Co. has hired you to test the hardiness of their newest smartphone model, the Mithril II. Your assignment is to determine the lowest floor of the Burj Khalifa tower (the world's tallest building, with 163 floors) from which the phone must be dropped to break it. You can ride the elevator to any floor, drop the phone to the ground, and then test whether it is intact. You may assume that if the phone breaks at a given floor, it consistently breaks at that floor and all higher floors. But the company has given you only two Mithril II's to test, and once one of them breaks, it remains broken. What is the minimum number of drops needed to determine the minimum floor of breaking, or else to conclude that the phone will withstand dropping from any of the floors?