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What is a maze? What is a labyrinth? What types of maze are there? What is the best way to get out of a maze? |
What is a hedge maze? What is a water maze? What is a mirror maze? What is a maize maze? |
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What is a maze? What is a labyrinth? What types of maze are there? What is the best way to get out of a maze? |
What is a hedge maze? What is a water maze? What is a mirror maze? What is a maize maze? |
What is a maze?
A maze is a three dimensional or two dimensional puzzle which has to be navigated from the start to the end. Three dimensional mazes are those made of hedges, walls, tunnels etc which are navigated by a person walking, or even a computer controlled robot (or mouse). Two dimensional mazes are those made of paving, or printed on paper, or even appearing on your computer screen. They can be navigated by walking, tracing a finger or drawing a line with a pencil. It is common for the end of the maze to be at its centre.
What is a labyrinth?
Some people think that if decisions have to made about the route then it is a maze, but if there is only one path then it is a labyrinth. I believe that a labyrinth is just another name for a maze. The original labyrinth of Greek mythology was a place where people got lost so it must have had many junctions and branches. According to legend it was built by King Minos on the island of Crete and was designed by Daedalus. At the centre lived the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull. King Minos fed it a on a diet of Greek prisoners. They were led into the labyrinth and eaten before they could find their way out. The Greek hero Theseus entered the labyrinth with a long thread which he unwound as he progressed. After killing the Minotaur he was able to follow the thread to find his way out. He would not have needed to do that if there was only one possible route.
It should also be noted that the word 'maze' is very much an English word. In most other languages the word 'labyrinth' is used to describe all types of maze, whether they contain branches or not.
As for those mazes which require no decision making. Well their correct name is Unicursal and they are discussed below.
What types of maze are there?
Unicursal is the name for a maze with no branches. You just follow the
path to the centre. An example is shown in the figure on the right. You can
click on the drawing to see a bigger version. These mazes are often made in
the form of a path, with no dividing walls. They are also common as designs
in churches and cathedrals, both on the wall and also set in tiles in the floor.
Branching mazes are the first of the types that you can get lost in.
As you walk through them you have to decide which path to take at each junction
and you find that many of the paths end in a cul-de-sac. You can click on the
drawing to see a bigger version. The trouble with this type of maze is that
you can find your way out too easily. Place your hand on one wall and
keep in contact with the wall as you walk. You may go down a lot of dead ends
but keeping to the wall you will come out of them and eventually get to the exit.
Island mazes were developed to prevent the visitor from getting out by
keeping in contact with one wall. They have one, or more, island sections within
them. See the drawing on the right, clicking on it will produce a bigger copy
of the image. You will see that one section, in the middle, has a path that
goes right round and joins up with itself. Of course in a real maze there would
be many more paths both outside the island and within the island.
What is best way to get out of a maze?
This is easy to do in the older type of simple maze. Place your hand on one wall and keep in contact with the wall as you walk. You may go down a lot of dead ends but keeping to the wall you will come out of them and eventually get to the exit. The same trick can be used to get to the centre, but you wouldn't think of doing that would you?
Maze makers soon realised that this was too easy and so they designed their mazes to prevent that trick from working. All they had to do was to produce an island within the maze, that is a section of path which went right round the centre and rejoined itself. Most modern mazes employ this technique.
There is, however a rule that can still get you out, but not quite as easily. This is known as 'Tremaux's Rule'. Tremaux was a French mathematician who devised the rule. This is it :-