Tower of Hanoi

Fibonacci Numbers

Motivating Examples
On Recurrence Relation

Miliyon T.

April 10, 2019

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Outline

1 Tower of Hanoi

2 Fibonacci Numbers

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi Statement

Tower of Hanoi
We are given a tower of eight disks, initially stacked in decreasing
size on one of three pegs:

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi Statement

Tower of Hanoi
We are given a tower of eight disks, initially stacked in decreasing
size on one of three pegs:

The objective is to transfer the entire tower to one of the other

pegs,

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi Statement

Tower of Hanoi
We are given a tower of eight disks, initially stacked in decreasing
size on one of three pegs:

The objective is to transfer the entire tower to one of the other

pegs, moving only one disk at a time and

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi Statement

Tower of Hanoi
We are given a tower of eight disks, initially stacked in decreasing
size on one of three pegs:

The objective is to transfer the entire tower to one of the other

pegs, moving only one disk at a time and never moving a larger
one onto a smaller.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi Statement

Tower of Hanoi
We are given a tower of eight disks, initially stacked in decreasing
size on one of three pegs:

The objective is to transfer the entire tower to one of the other

pegs, moving only one disk at a time and never moving a larger
one onto a smaller.
Question: What is the minimum number of moves required to
solve a Tower of Hanoi puzzle?

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 1 Disc

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 1 Disc

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 1 Disc

OK
1

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 2 Discs

1
2

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 2 Discs

2 1

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 2.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 2 Discs

1 2

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 2 Discs

1
2

Moved disc from pole 2 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 2 Discs

OK
1
2

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 3 Discs

1
2
3

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 3 Discs

2
3 1

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 3 Discs

3 2 1

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 2.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 3 Discs

1
3 2

Moved disc from pole 3 to pole 2.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 3 Discs

1
2 3

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 3 Discs

1 2 3

Moved disc from pole 2 to pole 1.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 3 Discs

2
1 3

Moved disc from pole 2 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 3 Discs

1
2
3

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 3 Discs

OK 1
2
3

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

1
2
3
4

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

2
3
4 1

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 2.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

3
4 1 2

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

3 1
4 2

Moved disc from pole 2 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

1
4 3 2

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 2.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

1
4 3 2

Moved disc from pole 3 to pole 1.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

1 2
4 3

Moved disc from pole 3 to pole 2.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

1
2
4 3

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 2.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

1
2
3 4

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

2 1
3 4

Moved disc from pole 2 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

1
2 3 4

Moved disc from pole 2 to pole 1.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

1
2 3 4

Moved disc from pole 3 to pole 1.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

1 3
2 4

Moved disc from pole 2 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

3
2 1 4

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 2.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

2
3
1 4

Moved disc from pole 1 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

1
2
3
4

Moved disc from pole 2 to pole 3.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 4 Discs

OK 1
2
3
4

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Tower of Hanoi – 5 Disc

1
2
3
?
4
5

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

At this point if Hn is the minimum number of moves that will

transfer n disks from one peg to another, we notice that

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

At this point if Hn is the minimum number of moves that will

transfer n disks from one peg to another, we notice that

Hn = 2Hn−1 + 1

This equation with initial condition H1 = 1, is a recurrence relation

for the Tower of Hanoi.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Fibonacci Sequence

Fibonacci Sequence
“[A]ssuming that:
a newly born pair of rabbits, one male, one female, are put in
a field;

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Fibonacci Sequence

Fibonacci Sequence
“[A]ssuming that:
a newly born pair of rabbits, one male, one female, are put in
a field;
rabbits are able to mate at the age of one month so that at
the end of its second month a female can produce another
pair of rabbits;

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Fibonacci Sequence

Fibonacci Sequence
“[A]ssuming that:
a newly born pair of rabbits, one male, one female, are put in
a field;
rabbits are able to mate at the age of one month so that at
the end of its second month a female can produce another
pair of rabbits;
rabbits never die and a mating pair always produces one new
pair (one male, one female) every month from the second
month on.”

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Fibonacci Sequence

Fibonacci Sequence
“[A]ssuming that:
a newly born pair of rabbits, one male, one female, are put in
a field;
rabbits are able to mate at the age of one month so that at
the end of its second month a female can produce another
pair of rabbits;
rabbits never die and a mating pair always produces one new
pair (one male, one female) every month from the second
month on.”
“The puzzle that Fibonacci posed was: how many pairs will there
be in one year?”

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Let ♠ denote a newly born rabbit pair, and ♥ denote a mature

rabbit pair.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Let ♠ denote a newly born rabbit pair, and ♥ denote a mature

rabbit pair.

Month Rabbits # Pairs

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Let ♠ denote a newly born rabbit pair, and ♥ denote a mature

rabbit pair.

Month Rabbits # Pairs

1 ♠ 1

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Let ♠ denote a newly born rabbit pair, and ♥ denote a mature

rabbit pair.

Month Rabbits # Pairs

1 ♠ 1
2 ♥ 1

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Let ♠ denote a newly born rabbit pair, and ♥ denote a mature

rabbit pair.

Month Rabbits # Pairs

1 ♠ 1
2 ♥ 1
3 ♥♠ 2

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Let ♠ denote a newly born rabbit pair, and ♥ denote a mature

rabbit pair.

Month Rabbits # Pairs

1 ♠ 1
2 ♥ 1
3 ♥♠ 2
4 ♥♥♠ 3

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

Let ♠ denote a newly born rabbit pair, and ♥ denote a mature

rabbit pair.

Month Rabbits # Pairs

1 ♠ 1
2 ♥ 1
3 ♥♠ 2
4 ♥♥♠ 3
5 ♥♥♥♠♠ 5
6 ♥♥♥♥♥♠♠♠ 8
7 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♠♠♠♠♠ 13
Table:

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

How many rabbit pairs do we have at the beginning of the 8th

month?

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

How many rabbit pairs do we have at the beginning of the 8th

month?
Clearly, all 13 rabbit pairs we have in the 7th month remain
there and are all mature.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

How many rabbit pairs do we have at the beginning of the 8th

month?
Clearly, all 13 rabbit pairs we have in the 7th month remain
there and are all mature. So, the question is; how many newly
born rabbit pairs that we have?

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

How many rabbit pairs do we have at the beginning of the 8th

month?
Clearly, all 13 rabbit pairs we have in the 7th month remain
there and are all mature. So, the question is; how many newly
born rabbit pairs that we have?
The number of newly born rabbit pairs equals the number of
mature rabbit pairs we have.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

How many rabbit pairs do we have at the beginning of the 8th

month?
Clearly, all 13 rabbit pairs we have in the 7th month remain
there and are all mature. So, the question is; how many newly
born rabbit pairs that we have?
The number of newly born rabbit pairs equals the number of
mature rabbit pairs we have. This is also equal to the number
of rabbit pairs that we have in the 6th month, which is 8.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

How many rabbit pairs do we have at the beginning of the 8th

month?
Clearly, all 13 rabbit pairs we have in the 7th month remain
there and are all mature. So, the question is; how many newly
born rabbit pairs that we have?
The number of newly born rabbit pairs equals the number of
mature rabbit pairs we have. This is also equal to the number
of rabbit pairs that we have in the 6th month, which is 8.
Thus, we will have 13 + 8 = 21 rabbit pairs at the beginning of the
8th month.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

If we write down the sequence, we get the Fibonacci sequence:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, . . .

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

If we write down the sequence, we get the Fibonacci sequence:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, . . .

Again, what’s the next number in this sequence?

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

If we write down the sequence, we get the Fibonacci sequence:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, . . .

Again, what’s the next number in this sequence?

To be precise, let Fn be the nth number in the Fibonacci sequence.
(That is, F1 = 1, F2 = 1, F3 = 2, F4 = 3 and so on.)

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

If we write down the sequence, we get the Fibonacci sequence:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, . . .

Again, what’s the next number in this sequence?

To be precise, let Fn be the nth number in the Fibonacci sequence.
(That is, F1 = 1, F2 = 1, F3 = 2, F4 = 3 and so on.) We can define
the (n + 1)th number as

Fn+1 = Fn + Fn−1 , for n ≥ 2 with F1 = 1, F2 = 1.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples

 Tower of Hanoi
Fibonacci Numbers

If we write down the sequence, we get the Fibonacci sequence:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, . . .

Again, what’s the next number in this sequence?

To be precise, let Fn be the nth number in the Fibonacci sequence.
(That is, F1 = 1, F2 = 1, F3 = 2, F4 = 3 and so on.) We can define
the (n + 1)th number as

Fn+1 = Fn + Fn−1 , for n ≥ 2 with F1 = 1, F2 = 1.

Miliyon T. Motivating Examples