Explain this O(n log n) algorithm for the Cat/Egg Throwing Problem

Posted by ripper234 on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by ripper234
Published on 2011-01-15T10:22:40Z Indexed on 2011/01/15 11:53 UTC
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algorithm

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google-code-jam

This problem (How many cats you need to throw out of a building in order to determine the maximal floor where such a cat will survive. Quite cruel, actually), has an accepted answer with O(n^3) complexity. The problem is equivalent to this Google Code Jam, which should be solvable for N=2000000000.

It seems that the O(n^3) solution is not good enough to solve it. From looking in the solutions page, jdmetz's solution (#2) seems to be O(n log n). I don't quite understand the algorithm. Can someone explain it?

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