Thursday, June 24, 2010

The Tower of Hanoi

Basically , this game involves a set number of poles and a set number of different size, rectangular shapes in which, in a certain amount of moves, one must move the blocks from the first pole to the last one. The catch is you can only move one block at a time and you can not place a larger block on top of a smaller one. I participated in, I believe, the minimum which was three poles, three blocks, in seven moves. It took me about two or three tries to figure the puzzle out but, to explain how I did it would be even more difficult than the puzzle itself. First, I assessed the game. Than, I began like my trial and error run, as a result, I lost but, came really close to the expected number of moves. Than, I simply just thought outside the box a little as i ran scenarios through my mind until I was convinced that my prediction would produce the least amount of moves. Discovering, my hypothesis was correct. The game may look simple but, I think it's much more complex if your mind is not sharp.

1 comment:

  1. Here is an explanation of the game and its solution that reveals the math and computer science behind it. Basically, it's about figuring out the rules behind the solution.

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