You have three small poles and five hoops - XS, S, M, L, XL (as in extra small, small, medium, large and extra large). They are placed on pole 1 in order, with largest at the bottom.

You can move one hoop at a time, and the hoops you are not moving have to be on a pole. You also cannot place a hoop on top of a smaller one. How can you move the hoops so that they are in the same order as they are now, but on pole 3?

Well, I solved this in 31 steps (maybe there are shorter methods), label the hoops a,b,c,d,e (from smallest to biggest).

1. a to pole 3
2. b to pole 2
3. a to pole 2
4. c to pole 3
5. a to pole 1
6. b to pole 3
7. a to pole 3
8. d to pole 2
9. a to pole 2
10. b to pole 1
11. a to pole 1
12. c to pole 2
13. a to pole 3
14. b to pole 2
15. a to pole 2
16. e to pole 3
17. a to pole 1
18. b to pole 3
19. a to pole 3
20. c to pole 1
21. a to pole 2
22. b to pole 1
23. a to pole 1
24. d to pole 3
25. a to pole 3
26. b to pole 2
27. a to pole 2
28. c to pole 3
29. a to pole 1
30. b to pole 3
31. a to pole 3

There you have it, hopefully you guys haven't fallen asleep...

Note: You guys could create 5 folders in any directory on your com and follow my procedure by moving your folders around to see for urselves!!

Posted by Jun on 2003-09-07 10:41:04