Every ostrich egg breaks if you drop it from a certain height or above, but if you drop it from below this height, no matters how many times , it won't break. Let's call this height "Breaking Height" (BH).
There is a 36-story building, and we have two eggs with the same BH. Your job is to found out using as few tries as possible between which two story this BH lies. A try means that you drop the egg and see whether it breaks. If you break both eggs you are given no more tries. You have to find he smallest number of tries in the worst-case scenario. If your strategy is to drop the first egg from the 2th floor, if it does not break then from the 4th, the 6th, etc. If, for example, it breaks after you dropped it from the 14th floor, then you will drop the second egg from the 13th floor and be able to decide where the BH is. In the worst-case scenario, the BH will be between the stories 35 and 36 (or between 34-35) floors, and you will need 18 tries.
You have 3 eggs with the same BH, but the house has 56 floors.
You have k eggs, the house has n floors and you need i tries in the scenario worst-case. What is the relationship between k, n and i ?
Once upon a time some dumb economists captured 100 clever computer engineers, and told them: You have 5 minutes (to discuss), then you have to stand in a straight line one behind one. Each of you will get a cap. This cap can be eighter black or white. Then starting from the back of the line we will ask each of you: What is the colour of your cap. If youre right well let you go, but if you are wrong well shoot you down. The answer can be only one word black or white, anyway you all will be shot. The aim is to save as many computer engineer as it is possible.
Some more explanation: everyone sees the whole line in front of him, but not those ones who stands behind him, and everybody can hear every shot, which means wrong answer.
An example: Everyone who stands on EVEN numbers will say the color of the cap in front of him. Then the men standing on ODD numbers will hear their colour and survive. With this strategy 50% of the computer engineers will survive, worst case. This is not a very good strategy. Find the best solution. Up for adventure.