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Journey to the Center of the Earth Hints

How can I solve the "tower of films" puzzle?

  • 1 of 13: If you haven't found this puzzle yet, go to the far end of the Academy Lab.  It sits in the left corner.
  • 2 of 13: Many of you will recognize this as the "Tower of Hanoi" puzzle.  It has been used in many games.

    The instructions for the puzzle are written on the piece of paper in front of it.  "Move each roll of film to the third post to reconstruct the same tower.  Caution: Never put a bigger roll on a smaller one (this may bend it out of shape.)"

    Therefore, your object is to move the complete set of 7 rings (film rolls in this instance) from one side to the other.  You'll be moving various rings back and forth between all 3 posts to accomplish this task.  Click on a roll of film to pick it up and then click on a post to set it there.  The puzzle resets to the beginning if you back out of the screen before finishing.
  • 3 of 13: Label the Posts A through C Left to Right.  Begin by moving the smallest ring from Post A (left side) to Post C (right side).
  • 4 of 13: The next ring can go to the middle (Post B), since it cannot be stacked on top of the smallest ring.
  • 5 of 13: Now move the smallest one from Post C to Post B.
  • 6 of 13: That frees up Post C, so move the next larger one from Post A there.
  • 7 of 13: It begins to get a little trickier now.  You'll need to move both of the ones in the middle somewhere else.
  • 8 of 13: Move the smallest one from Post B to Post A.  Then, move the film on Post B to Post C.
  • 9 of 13: Move the smallest one from Post A to Post C.
  • 10 of 13: I think you get the idea now.  Continue moving them back and forth between the posts.  Eventually the largest one will be alone on Post A by itself, ready to be moved.
  • 11 of 13: By moving the others around, free up the right side post so the largest film reel can be moved there.
  • 12 of 13: As you may notice, we've always moved the smallest ring from right to left (or A to C to B to A...).  The second smallest always moves from left to right.  The third one moves right to left.  And so on.  This pattern may help you find the quickest solution.
  • 13 of 13: Then stack the rest on top of it in order.