Tower of Hanoi

How to play Tower of Hanoi?

The Towers of Hanoi is a world-famous puzzle created by French mathematician Édouard Lucas in 1883. Initially, all the disks are arranged from largest to smallest in the left bar; Your goal is to move them all to the rightmost bar. Only the top disk of a stick can be moved to another stick in each move, and a large disk can never be placed on top of a small disk. The minimum number of moves for n disks is 2ⁿ−1.

1. Initially, all the disks are arranged on the left bar, from largest to smallest.
2. In one move, you can move the top disk of any bar to another bar.
3. A larger disk can never be placed on top of a smaller disk.
4. Once you move all the disks to the rightmost bar, you have solved the puzzle; The best solution is 2ⁿ−1 moves (n = number of disks).
5. You can choose difficulty levels between 3 and 8 discs, see the next best move at any time with "Hint" or undo your last move with "Undo".

Tower of Hanoi strategy tips

• To solve an n-disk puzzle, first move the top n-1 disks to the auxiliary stick, then move the largest disk to the target, and finally move the n-1 disks to the target — this way of thinking works at all levels.
• Avoid moving discs back and forth unnecessarily; Every move must serve a purpose.
• If you get stuck, you can see the next move in the shortest solution with the "Hint" button.

Tower of Hanoi history

The Towers of Hanoi is a world-famous puzzle that was coined by French mathematician Édouard Lucas in 1883 and has been used to describe recursion in mathematics and computer science education ever since.

According to legend, in a temple, priests carry 64 golden disks with these rules; When they carry them all the world will end. The best solution for 64 disks takes 2⁶⁴−1 moves—even at one move per second, that's more than the age of the universe!

Other names: Tower of Hanoi, Tower of Hanoi, disc puzzle