Thread: Pop quiz!
View Single Post
  #80  
Old 08-23-2004, 09:54 PM
NAHTMMM's Avatar
NAHTMMM NAHTMMM is offline
Noodles And Hot Tofu! MMM
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: St Louis, MO, USA, . . .
Posts: 2,961
Send a message via Yahoo to NAHTMMM
Default

I don't even SEE much in the way of math in your program... :?



Anyway, it would seem that the number of building heights such that you need a maximum of n one-ball trials to find the minimum height from which the ball will break is equal to 2^n (which isn't terribly surprising). That is, there are 2^(2-1) = 2 building heights that require 2 trials, 2^(3-1) = 4 building heights that require 3 trials, etc. And of course there's the exception of the building just one story tall, where you don't need to run any trials because you know the ball will break if you drop it from the first story since there aren't any other stories to drop from :lol:.
__________________
My 5MV webpages My novel fivers list

Yup

“There must have been a point in early human history when it was actually advantageous to, when confronted with a difficult task, drop it altogether and go do something more fun, because I do that way too often for it to be anything but instinct.” -- Isto Combs
Reply With Quote