How do we know the correct moves of Tower of Hanoi?

Posted by Saqib on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Saqib
Published on 2012-03-19T10:13:16Z Indexed on 2012/03/20 17:29 UTC
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We know that:

In case of iterative solution: Alternating between the smallest and the next-smallest disks, follow the steps for the appropriate case:

For an even number of disks:

make the legal move between pegs A and B
make the legal move between pegs A and C
make the legal move between pegs B and C
repeat until complete

For an odd number of disks:

make the legal move between pegs A and C
make the legal move between pegs A and B
make the legal move between pegs B and C
repeat until complete

In case of recursive solution: To move n discs from peg A to peg C:

move n-1 discs from A to B. This leaves disc n alone on peg A
move disc n from A to C
move n-1 discs from B to C so they sit on disc n

Now the questions are:

How did we get this two solutions?

Only by intuition?

Or by logical/mathematical computation?

If computation, how?

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