|
|
|
||||||||
In Tibet , a group of Tibetan Monks have 64 golden discs. The discs are graduated in size, with the largest at the bottom and the smallest at the top. All 64 discs began on the left hand of 3 poles. The monks are busily transferring all of the discs to the right hand pole with the rules that only one disc can be moved at a time and no disc may be put on top of a smaller disc. It is said that when the monks complete the task, the world will end!
In the Crystal Maze, Richard O'Brien has set a similar task to a team, but they only have 5 discs to move. To make it easier to work out, you should number them in ascending order of size.
Start with:
You need to end up with:
The first few moves should look like this:
Only move one disc at a time.
No disc may be placed on a smaller disc.
How many moves does it take?
Investigate for different numbers of discs.
Investigate for different numbers of poles.
The solution is connected with binomials and factorials.