what is "Tower of Hanoi" and how is it the most interesting puzzle to solve?

Answer 1

Tower of Hanoi is pretty cool.

Basically, there are 3 pegs. There is a tower that sits on one peg, and you must rebuild the tower on another.

In the very basic version the tower has 3 layers - 3 blocks. But the blocks aren't the same size. They start off stacked like a pyramid, with the largest block on the bottom - and that's the same way the whole tower must be rebuilt on another peg.

The basic rule is that a block cannot be set onto a block smaller than it.

The 3 block version take 7 moves to beat. 4 block, 15; 5 block, 31; and so on. A 10 block version would take 1023 moves to beat.

I've heard there's a Hindu legend that there is a god playing the game with 64 layers. Every day that passes, he takes another move. When he has finally beat the game, the world will end.

I found a link. Turns out it's monks, no a god. But to finish the 64 layer puzzle would be 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 moves!

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

It's a fairly basic puzzle, and it's up there with Hello World for assignments in introductory programming courses. I've never heard anyone claim it was the "most interesting" puzzle to solve, though.

Answer 3

http://www.mazeworks.com/hanoi/