Question

Snarkbusters Inc. produces and deploys snark detectors, to be used on building facades. These are very expensive devices. One of the company's workers dropped a snark detector while working on the 16th floor of a building in Melbourne's CBD, and the device broke when it hit the ground, in spite of having a reputation as indestructible. The company now wants to know how tough their snark detector really is. They have hired a consultant, Dr. Eva Luator, to determine the largest floor level from which a snark detector can be dropped without breaking. That is, they want the number n such that dropping a snark detector from level n is safe (it does not break), but dropping it from level n1 is unsafe (it will break). They call that number n the "safe limit". They knovw that there is no problem when the device is dropped from ground level, that is, they know that 0< n< 16.

Answer 1

If there are two snarks.

A possible approach can be two consecutive levels can be tested together. If both the snarks break then the lower level will give the unsafe limit.If the
higher one breaks then the lower one will give the safe limit. So in such a strategy we will be needing 8 drops to test 16 floors. One important thing is
snarks must be marked or there should be a distinguishing feature so that when both fall , we can know which one(its floor number) has broken.