History Main / TowersOfHanoi

* ''PerplexCity'' borrows the Hindu legend for the card Tower of Cubes, though their temple only has 36 cubes to work with, and completing the puzzle will end all sorrow and grief in the universe.

** It shows up in ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'', and ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''[[note]]''Mass Effect 1'' at least allows the player to skip the puzzle at the cost of 100 Omnigel[[/note]].

Amusingly, at least one Brahmin monastery has adopted the puzzle as a genuine devotional exercise, using approximately 30 brass discs[[note]]A 30-disk tower would take a bit over 34 years to solve at the rate of one disk per second.[[/note]]. No word if the puzzle's completion will mark the end of the current universe.

* One of the puzzles among the final trio of minigames near the end of ''Reah: Face the Unknown''. This one plays it from the reverse angle (smallest in the back, largest in front). But it's annoying in the fact that, [[RuleOfThree like the other two puzzles, you have to do three rounds of it]], each one containing more pieces than the last.

** One of the game machines seen in the arcade included in the ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' Citadel DLC is "Towers of Hanoi." Shepard's reaction: "I don't think so."

* On ''Series/{{Survivor}} Thailand'' (U.S. season 5), a version of this puzzle was an immunity challenge.

* The MMORPG ''EverQuest'' has a quest where you have to play Towers of Hanoi, although they don't call it that.

* In the SystemShock fanfic FreeRadical, a robot was set to do a twenty-piece version to prevent SHODAN from being able to connect to it when it went for new orders.

* ''3D Ultra Lionel [=TrainTown=]'' has a Tower of Hanoi puzzle as one of the game's missions, which is played with train cars.

* One of the activities in Math Blaster Pre-Algebra is a variation on the Towers of Hanoi where barrels in the basement must be stacked to solve a math problem. Rather than varying sizes of barrels, it uses varying numbers on the barrels which must add up to the number on the platform. There are three places to put the barrels and four barrels. There are two platforms which may or may not have different numbers.

* A side mission to explore an abandoned mansion in ''Space Rangers 2'' has this as one of the puzzles.

* The Tire Tower puzzle in ''TheSecretIslandOfDrQuandary''. 3 tires as B. Ginner, 4 as O.D. Nary, 5 as D. Feecult, and each with a limit on the moves you can use before your time is up and Quandary kicks you out of the junkyard.

* "Bright Eyes", the ape in ''RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'', is seen ''flying'' through this puzzle, though it was a four disc variant and she was tested on it repeatedly.

* One of the puzzles among the final trio of minigames near the end of ''Reah: Face the Unknown''. This one plays it from the reverse angle (smallest in the back, largest in front). But it's annoying in the fact that, [[RuleOfThree like the other two puzzles, ''you have to do three rounds of it'' ]], each one containing more pieces than the last.

* One of the puzzles among the final trio of minigames near the end of ''Reah: Face the Unknown''. This one plays it from the reverse angle (smallest in the back, largest in front). But it's annoying in the fact that, [[RuleOfThree like the other two puzzles, ''you have to do three rounds of it'']], each one containing more pieces than the last.

Amusingly, at least one Brahmin monastery has adopted the puzzle as a genuine devotional exercise, using approximately 30 brass discs. No word if the puzzle's completion will mark the end of the current universe.

** It shows up in ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'', and ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''.

* Appears in its four-tier form in ''Mystery of Mortlake Mansion''.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/300px-Tower_of_Hanoi.jpeg
A classic StockPuzzle, invented in [[OlderThanRadio 1883]] by Edouard Lucas. The player is given three poles in a row, and at least three discs of different sizes stacked on the pole on one side. The object is to get the discs from the pole on one side to the pole on the other by moving the discs, one at a time, from one pole to another, in as few moves as possible. The player can only move the top disc on any stack, and cannot place a bigger disc on a smaller disc.

There is an (apocryphal) legend about a lost temple where the priests of Brahma, [[BecauseDestinySaysSo in accordance with an ancient prophecy]], basically spend their time playing Towers of Hanoi... with ''64 disks of solid gold''. Furthermore, the prophecy states that when the puzzle is finally solved, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the world will end]]. That legend is a [[DanBrowned Dan Browning]] from Lucas himself, which he distributed with the original puzzle under the SignificantAnagram N. Claus (De Siam), for E. Lucas (D'Amiens). Note that if this legend were true, even if the priests were able to move one disc per second, it would take 584,942,417,356 years, 26 days, 7 hours and 15 seconds for them to solve it. So we have nothing to worry about in any case.

The recursive solution is, roughly:

(1) If there is only one disk move it directly from the source peg to the target peg. Otherwise:
(2) Ignore the bottom disk of the tower on the source peg, and solve the Towers of Hanoi problem from the source peg to the spare peg, using the target peg as a spare. The spare peg now has a tower of ''n''-1 disks on it, and the source peg has one disk (the biggest) on it.
(3) Move the single disk from the source peg to the target peg.
(4) Solve the Towers of Hanoi problem from the spare peg to the target peg using the source peg as a spare.

* The third screen in ''The Island of DrBrain'' has this puzzle with 4, 5, or 7 discs, depending on the difficulty. Expect to be there a while on Expert difficulty making 127 moves.

There is an (apocryphal) legend about a lost temple where the priests of Brahma, [[BecauseDestinySaysSo in accordance with an ancient prophecy]], basically spend their time playing Towers of Hanoi... with ''64 disks of solid gold''. Furthermore, the prophecy states that when the puzzle is finally solved, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the world will end]]. That legend is a [[DanBrowned Dan Browning]] from Lucas himself, which he distributed with the original puzzle under the SignificantAnagram N. Claus (De Siam), for E. Lucas (D'Amiens). Note that if this legend were true, even if the priests were able to move one disc per second, it would take 584,942,417,355 years, 26 days, 7 hours and 15 seconds for them to solve it. So we have nothing to worry about in any case.

A classic Stock Puzzle, invented in [[OlderThanRadio 1883]] by Edouard Lucas. The player is given three poles in a row, and at least three discs of different sizes stacked on the pole on one side. The object is to get the discs from the pole on one side to the pole on the other by moving the discs, one at a time, from one pole to another, in as few moves as possible. The player can only move the top disc on any stack, and cannot place a bigger disc on a smaller disc.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "The Celestial Toymaker" (now a LostEpisode, but available on audio), the Doctor is challenged to solve a 10-disc version of the Towers of Hanoi, known as The Trilogic Game. The Doctor realises that the Toymaker's world will vanish once he makes the last move, [[spoiler: so he finishes it inside the TARDIS]].

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/300px-Tower_of_Hanoi.jpeg

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