The Towers of Hanoi puzzle was published
in 1883 by French mathematician Edouard Lucas, under the pen-name,
N. Lucas de Siam.
History
The "legend" which
accompanied the game stated that in Benares, during the reign
of the Emperor Fo Hi, there was a temple with a dome which marked
the center of the world. Within the dome, priests moved golden
disks between diamond needlepoints, a cubit high and as thick
as the body of a bee. God placed 64 gold disks on one needle
at the time of creation. It was said that when they completed
their task, the universe would come to an end. (Since it would
take at least 264 -1 moves to complete the task, we're
safe for now. Assuming one move per second, and no wrong moves,
it would take almost 585,000,000,000 years to complete.)
