self Maths Puzzle

The founders of Hairytown decreed years ago that:

1. No two people can have the same number of hairs
2. No one can have 999 hairs.
3. No one can have more than, or the same number of hairs as, the population of the town

The town has now reached its maximum population - what is it?

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self Other Question

You have to do an experiment to determine the highest floor on a 100-floor building from which a manufactured snooker ball may be dropped without breaking.

You are given two identical snooker balls, which you can drop from various floors of the building, to carry out your experiment.

If a ball doesn't break after being dropped, it may be reused without suffering any loss of quality. But if both balls break before you have determined the highest floor, then you are an incompetent bungler and your boss is ultimately going to fire you.

What is the least number of times you must drop the snooker balls in order to determine the highest floor?
You need to boil eggs for exactly 9 minutes, or else the visiting Duchess will complain, and you will lose your job as head chef.

But you have only 2 Hourglasses, one measures 7-minutes, and the other measures 4-minutes. How can you correctly measure 9 minutes?