About

This puzzle consists of three pegs, and a stack of circular disks of differing sizes, each of which can be threaded onto a peg. At the start, the disks are all in order on the first peg, from the largest disk at the bottom to the smallest disk at the top. You are only allowed to move one disk at a time from one peg to another, and at no time may a disk be placed on top a smaller disk. The aim of the puzzle is to move all the disks from the first peg to the third. The puzzle can be solved with any number of disks, but it takes longer with more disks. This puzzle was invented by the French mathematician Edouard Lucas in 1883. The description included with the puzzle when it was originally sold called it a simplified version of a mythical 'Tower of Brahma' in a temple in the Indian city of Benares. This tower consisted of 64 disks, which had to be moved to another position by priests. The legend went that if they completed the task, the tower would crumble and the world would end. Rudenko MatryoshkaRudenko Matryoshka is a version of the standard Hanoi puzzle where the moving pieces are like traditional nested Matryoshka dolls, with the outer shells being analogous to the smaller disks. The pieces are constrained to move along a track, and there is a locking mechanism is place that is supposed to prevent more than one piece moving at the same time. Rudenko ClipsRudenko Clips is clever version of the Hanoi puzzle. Its body has a horizontal bar onto which are hung a set of concentric bands. The bar has three sections, and you can move a band from one section to an adjacent one. You can only move the outer band of a section, and can only move it if it is larger than all the bands on the section you move it to. This is slightly more restrictive than the standard Hanoi rules, since you cannot move a band directly between the outer sections but only via the middle section. This means that only the largest band can be moved in one move between the outer sections, while all other bands have to do it in two steps. Rudenko DiskRudenko Disk is a disc-shaped version of the puzzle where the moving pieces are beads constrained to move along a track. The pegs are represented by the three connected dead-end tracks. The pieces cannot move further down each track than their starting location. This is slightly less restrictive than the standard Hanoi rules, as it does not restrict the size of the pieces stacked on top of another, only how many can be stacked on it. Note that the Panex puzzle has a similar rule, but as that puzzle has two towers that need to be exchanged, it is much harder. Hanoi Coin PuzzleThis unknown, probably Hungarian puzzle uses a mechanism similar to the Rudenko Disk and the Panex puzzle, and like the latter it has three vertical slots for the pegs. It has one tower of five disk-shaped pieces, and the pieces cannot move further down each track than their starting location. The top disk is confined to the horizontal track connecting the pegs. This puzzle has the neat feature that you can insert a coin at the bottom of an outer track, which then acts as a sixth disk. The only way to free the coin is to manoeuvre it to the centre track which has a hole at the bottom. You can even put a coin in both outer tracks for a harder (or more tedious) challenge. If your browser supports JavaScript, then you can play the Towers of Hanoi by clicking the link below: