Last week, my math teacher, who is also my logic teacher, explained to me how computers follow instructions sequentially using the analogy of the Tower of Hanoi.

Finally, I adopted a mindset that allowed me to behave as if I were explaining something to a kid, and walkingtrhoung slowly, step by step.

Let's see:

In Java:

public class TowerOfHanoi {

    // Recursive function to solve Tower of Hanoi
    public static void solveHanoi(int n, char source, char destination, char auxiliary) {
        // Base case: If there's only one disk, move it directly
        if (n == 1) {
            System.out.println("Move disk 1 from " + source + " to " + destination);
            return;
        }

        // Step 1: Move n-1 disks from source to auxiliary using destination
        solveHanoi(n - 1, source, auxiliary, destination);

        // Step 2: Move the nth disk from source to destination
        System.out.println("Move disk " + n + " from " + source + " to " + destination);

        // Step 3: Move n-1 disks from auxiliary to destination using source
        solveHanoi(n - 1, auxiliary, destination, source);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int numberOfDisks = 4; // With 4 disks
        System.out.println("Tower of Hanoi solution for " + numberOfDisks + " disks:");
        solveHanoi(numberOfDisks, 'A', 'C', 'B'); // A = source, C = destination, B = auxiliary
    }
}

The steps are:

• Base case: If I have only one disk, I move it directly from the source peg to the destination peg.
• Recursive step 1: I move the top n-1 disks from the source peg to the auxiliary peg, using the destination peg as a helper.
• Move largest disk: I move the remaining (largest) disk from the source peg to the destination peg.
• Recursive step 2: Then, I move the n-1 disks from the auxiliary peg to the destination peg, using the source peg as a helper.

Our routine is already quite abstract, making it difficult to simplify things and approach them step by step. Ultimately, to paraphrase her:

"The computer is simply faster than you, not smarter"

Keep going...