PEG PUZZLE

I must admit in class when given the peg puzzle I struggled trying to solve the problem

We were given a board with 8 pegs (4 pegs in purple 4 in blue). The task was to: move the pegs on the left pass the pegs on the right, you can jump over only one color; cannot move backward only forward.

After class I tried the peg puzzle on NLVM: http://http//nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_182_g_4_t_1.html?from=grade_g_4.html

I liked the way the online game was set up.

It starts off with two pegs: (shown on left)

Once I completed and won two pegs;

I was able to move to the next step which is four pegs (below)

After completing four pegs you can choose six or eight pegs. Once I have mastered playing with four and six pegs I felt confident and moved to eight pegs.

The pattern I observed was:

It does not matter which side you start with.

Move red on left into open space, jump with blue, move blue pieces forward (empty space at end of right side), make all jumps using red peg, blue can move to end (two blue pegs at end on left), move red into emty spaces, then jump using all blue pegs and puzzle completed.

As a teacher students will come up with different ways to show patterns.

Please share with me ways to describe the pattern you used to solve the puzzle.