A playful venture into the vast and mysterious forests of combinatorial game theory.

This one simple game will change the way you look at numbers forever! Hackenbush is easy to pick up, but exploring its strategy leads us down a fantastical mathematical rabbit hole, through which can be found the roots of our familiar number system, intricately entangled with a host of new and exotic numeric species lurking alongside them.

Script, narrations, animations, and soundtrack were all done by me. Special thanks to my friends @whirligig231, @derpky, @emileserper, @flavoredsaucer, and @walgrey_tweets for concurrent feedback on all aspects of the video during its production.

Made with Manim Community: https://manim.community/
My music channel: https://youtube.omaitzen.com/

0:00 Intro
2:05 Starting at the Roots
4:26 Branching Out
6:38 Tabulating Trees
9:10 Into the Weeds
12:25 Going Green
16:27 Binary Beanstalks
21:00 Positive Petals
27:16 But What Are Numbers?
35:14 Hacking the Infinite
39:52 Sisyphus' Garden
45:26 Sweltering Switches
50:56 Down the Rabbit Hole
54:08 Conclusion