The Tower of Hanoi (also known as "Tower of Brahma" or "Lucas' Tower") is a mathematical game or puzzle. It consists of three rods, and a number of disks (most common are 7 and 9 disks) of different sizes which can slide onto any rod.
Rules
The puzzle starts with the disks in a neat stack in ascending order of size on one rod, the smallest at the top, thus making a conical shape.
The objective of the puzzle is to move the entire stack to another rod, obeying the following simple rules:
1. Only one disk can be moved at a time.
2. Each move consists of taking the upper disk from one of the stacks and placing it on top of another stack i.e. a disk can only be moved if it is the uppermost disk on a stack.
3. No disk may be placed on top of a smaller disk (smaller disks must always be on the top)
With three disks, the puzzle can be solved in seven moves. The minimum number of moves required to solve a Tower of Hanoi puzzle is (2n – 1) moves, where n is the number of disks.
Used often in math classes of different level as well as in computer programming courses.
Origins
The puzzle was invented by the French mathematician Edouard Lucas in 1883. There is a story about an Indian temple in Kashi Vishwanath which contains a large room with three time-worn posts in it surrounded by 64 golden disks. Brahmin priests, acting out the command of an ancient prophecy, have been moving these disks, in accordance with the immutable rules of the Brahma, since that time. According to the legend, when the last move of the puzzle will be completed, the world will end. It is not clear whether Lucas invented this legend or was inspired by it. If the legend were true, and if the priests were able to move disks at a rate of one per second, using the smallest number of moves, it would take them 264-1 seconds or roughly 585 Billion years, or 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 turns to finish, or about 42 times the current age of the Universe.
There are many legend variations… some include Hanoi, Vietnam. which makes this ancient game a mystery.
This product is the 7 disk version of Tower-of-Hanoi.
