The Hill Climbing Huristic Is a Problem Solving Technique

The hobbits and orks problem can be solved in what's usually considered 14 steps, or 14 stages. One reason this particular puzzle is useful for studying problem solving is in studying what's known as the hill climbing huristic. At each step, you do whatever it is that appears to get you into a state that looks more similar to the goal state than the step before it did. And studies have found that people use the hill climbing heristic to generate steps when solving the Hobbits and Orks problem.