The Ol' Bulb Drop: Newsletter Challenge (January 2019)

I would half the floors and test for break/ no break results starting with the 50th floor...

It may be possible to reduce the number. If bulb 1 is dropped from floor 100, the number of floors it passes before terminal velocity can be observed. Subsequent tests can follow your reasoning from the 3rd (or whatever height it is to treach terminal velocity) floor.

A slight aside : The question implies an indestructable lightbulb exists. I'm baffled, because Ive yet to find anything in the house I cannot break.

Regarding your slight aside, the question says DEstructable

You're quite correct, though stating 'destructable' is not needed unless the question setter considers that indestructable light bulbs exist.

I find that if I stand on a chair to change a light bulb & drop it, It breaks, so 9Ft max.

Bazzer.

Binary search starting at 50. It shouldn't take more than 7 bulbs, probably less.

If you have 2 bulbs, start at 2,4,6, ... until it breaks. Then drop the other one from the floor below.

You're stuck in an incandescent frame of mind....

It said lightbulb. It didn't say solid-state device.

I certainly don't see a light bulb in your picture.

How bout this?

If that's one of those LEDs with the glass envelope/bulb? I've used and broken those too. and my answer is unchanged.

They are destructable at one story or less.

_________________

... which is good for a product that would otherwise last too long.

-the shareholders

They have a plastic bulb...

Light bulbs by definition are glass.

Semantics? I think not

.. with inert gas and filiment!?*)

... glass LEDs... Oh my sure

I have a light bulb like that which was dropped ( or dropped on) from several floors and is still functioning fine. Oh that is right they said without breaking. It broke but was not destroyed. Still works fine without outer decorative shell.

This guy might know...

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a13498/video-man-changes-light-bulb-on-1500-foot-tv-tower-17603218/

That video made areas of my body feel weird.

Use a Fibonacci search to minimize the number of drops

You drop one from any of the 100 floors, then save the other nineteen.

There's a little man that runs out and steals the bulb before you can get back down the stairs...

Because there is no Lift!

This is the correct answer. Start at the bottom and work up until one breaks.

I think you start at Floor 64, then go up or down in floors by decreasing powers of 2.

So if the bulb doesn’t break, you’d go to 96, then either up to 100 or down to 80, etc.

If the bulb breaks at 64 you go down to 32, then either up to 48 or down to 16, etc.

Mathematically the given question is can be solved by the below formulae.

2 ⁿ = 100.

i.e. n ≅ 6 to 7 tries.

Hence, maximum 6 to 7 tries will able to figure out the floor from which the dropping the bulb without breaking.

And dropping from 50th floor and if pass 75 floor else 25th floor and goes on ....

within 6 tries you will able to figure out, worst scenario 7 tries.

Start at the bottom floor going up using the same bulb until it breaks.

What type of "Light Bulb"?

Results will vary.

The Ol' Bulb Drop (20 destructible light bulbs & building with 100 floors). I would start at the 5th floor. If bulb broke I would go to the 3rd floor and drop another. If bulb broke again I would go to the 1st floor, where I imagine the bulb would break there too. If it did not break I'd go back to the 2nd floor and the bulb would either break or not break. If not your answer would be the 2nd floor. If bulb did not break at the original 5th floor then I'd continue to the 10th floor. Whether it broke or not determines whether I proceed up or down. The Ol' bulb drop with 2 bulbs & 100 floors. I would already know from the first experiment at what floor the bulb could be dropped and not break.

Start at Floor 50.

If it does not break, increase 10 to 60, if it breaks then drop each floor from 60 to 50 to find the sweet spot, if it does not break go up 10.

Or, Breaks on 50, Drop to 40. If it holds at 40 then up per floor one at a time until you find the sweet spot.

Max bulbs used 15 if: 50-100 or 50-10

Truth: Most bulbs don't survive a 6' ladder drop.

2 questions. First: How do you define breakage? Breaking the glass envelope or knocking the filament out? Second: What surface will it land on? Concrete, grass, or something else?

My own experience with incandescent bulbs, when they are lit, is just a few feet if that much.

With an incandescent bulb you don't need to drop it at all...If it has been on for a while and the filament is hot it just takes a good smack for the element to destruct....Good riddance!

Er...is the bulb being dropped outside the building ? If It's dropped inside an appartment, the answer is either floor 100 or indeterminate. Possibly.

I like the out of the box thinking!

A standard incandescent light bulb? 1 floor will suffice.

Anything more than that is just another story.

Answer is posted.

In this puzzle, no mention has been made of the landing ground, concrete to a pond of water

Onto concrete, one floor is too high, into a pond of water, they will probably survive from floor 100.