You're right, the bound is 7/4 and hence gives the correct answer in that case.
Your account is more complicated than need be because the bound always operates when the m-sticks are constrained to be divided into only two pieces, making the first constraint P=2n. So the n-sticks are presumably going to be divided into about 2n/m pieces, give or take some rounding somewhere. Ignoring the trivial case where m | 2n, set p = floor(2n/m) and by considering the four possible cases we get a bound of
max [ min (n/p, m-n/p), min (n/(p+1), m-n/(p+1)) ]
In the s(4,9) case, p=4 and this gives
max [ min (9/4, 7/4), min (9/5, 11/5) ] = max (7/4,9/5) = 7/4.
(I didn't do this explicit calculation earlier as my brain was full and I hoped to get some work done today, but I have overcome both weaknesses :-)
As we've said, this bound isn't always tight but it seems it very often is. I'd be interested in whether your data has any cases refuting my conjecture that, when the bound isn't tight, s is still >= m/3. Also of course to see if one can characterise the cases where the bound is not tight.
no subject
Your account is more complicated than need be because the bound always operates when the m-sticks are constrained to be divided into only two pieces, making the first constraint P=2n. So the n-sticks are presumably going to be divided into about 2n/m pieces, give or take some rounding somewhere. Ignoring the trivial case where m | 2n, set p = floor(2n/m) and by considering the four possible cases we get a bound of
max [ min (n/p, m-n/p), min (n/(p+1), m-n/(p+1)) ]
In the s(4,9) case, p=4 and this gives
max [ min (9/4, 7/4), min (9/5, 11/5) ] = max (7/4,9/5) = 7/4.
(I didn't do this explicit calculation earlier as my brain was full and I hoped to get some work done today, but I have overcome both weaknesses :-)
As we've said, this bound isn't always tight but it seems it very often is. I'd be interested in whether your data has any cases refuting my conjecture that, when the bound isn't tight, s is still >= m/3. Also of course to see if one can characterise the cases where the bound is not tight.