Parallel Towers of Hanoi via Generalized Nets: Simulated with OnlineGN

This paper introduces a variant of the classic Towers of Hanoi (TH) puzzle in which parallel moves—simultaneous transfers of multiple discs—are permitted. The problem is formalized with Generalized Nets (GN), an extension of Petri nets (PN) whose tokens and transitions encode the ordering and movement of the n discs among three rods under the usual constraints. The resulting GN model, implemented on the OnlineGN platform, provides a clear, precise, and systematic representation that highlights the role of parallelism and supports interactive experimentation. This framework enables the exploration of strategies that reduce the number of parallel steps (PS) and, more broadly, illustrates how GN-captured parallelism can shorten the sequential depth for selected problems with exponential-time solutions.