History of a Puzzle - Tower of Hanoi

One of the major reasons I began my journey starting Monkey Pod Games was my love and passion for wooden games and puzzles. I loved how they either drew upon a rich history/fable or were based on some sort of modern engineering ingenuity. When you held a puzzle in front of you, one never had to look far to find its history or story. 

The Tower of Hanoi is a classic example. One of my favorites! Here is a game where you have three poles and the aim is to bring the rings from one pole to the other. From far left to far right. However! There are rules to be followed! You can never put a larger disk on top of a smaller disk! I am telling you it is much harder than it sounds. 

This game is a great example of how history meets legend. So, the game itself was first published/created in 1883 by the French Mathematician Edouard Lucas. A side note about Lucas, he was known for studying the famous Fibonacci sequence (and if you have heard of the term Lucas Numbers, well then you are right if you assumed it was named after Edouard Lucas)! 

Anyways, so Lucas who was a brilliant mathematician was also a promoter and aficionado of recreational mathematics. Thats right! Math can be fun too! He created many recreational mathematic games but the Tower of Hanoi would become his most famous.

But here is where it gets really interesting. There are those who say the story/fable doesn't begin in 1883.........Hmm.....Some say it goes all the way back to an ancient Indian temple in Kashi which was used by Brahmin priests. For those who are interested in knowing, Brahmin are those who belong to the Hindu priest, artisans, teachers and technicians class.  

The way the tale goes, inside one of the temple rooms were three posts with 64 disks. It has been said that the priests have been moving the disks in accordance with the rules of Brahma and under the direction of an ancient prophecy. Some have said once the final disk is moved over the final post, the world will come to the end!

Crazy! But here is where knowing math can be such a great tool and ease your qualms about the world coming to an end! It has been calculated that if the priests were able to solve the puzzle using the least amount of moves - that is without any mistakes, then it would take them 585 billion years to solve! So, I think we have some time before we need to worry about that!

I hope you enjoyed this little history and story behind one of my favorite games. Like I said, when you hold one of these games in your hands, history and tales are never far behind!

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