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?

(In reply to solution in 19 moves by Victor Zapana)

It might be an interesting twist to have more than 3 poles, but all the problem seems to allow is 5 poles... Did you mean for some of the 4s and 5s to be 1s 2s and 3s? Here's the solution for 5 poles (It might be harder with more than 5 rings/discs when we have 5 poles)

1) XS from pole 1 to pole 2
2) S from pole 1 to pole 5
3) XS from pole 2 to pole 5
4) M from pole 1 to pole 4
5) L from pole 1 to pole 2
6) XL from pole 1 to pole 3
7) L from pole 2 to pole 3
8) M from pole 4 to pole 3
9) XS from pole 5 to pole 4
10) S from pole 5 to pole 3
11) XS from pole 4 to pole 3

Posted by Gamer on 2003-09-07 15:40:06