A drawer holds 8 black socks and 6 white socks jumbled together. In the dark a sock is taken out one at a time. What is the smallest number of socks that must be taken out to be CERTAIN of having a matching pair?

Two socks may turn out to be one black and one white, so two are not enough to be certain. Among any three socks only two colours are available, so two of the three must share a colour. The answer is 3 and it does not depend on how many socks of each colour there are, as long as each colour has at least two. Waiting until 8 socks (enough to exhaust one colour) or all 14 are out is far more than the question needs.