Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze

Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by leptons on Thursday July 11, 2024 @03:13PM (#40939645)

I made the mistake of walking into a maze at Burning Man, and as I was walking in there were people begging us if we had seen the entrance recently. I didn't think much of it, until I understood just how "fiendishly" designed the maze was. It wasn't very large, maybe 150 foot square, 8 foot tall plywood sheets, so you couldn't just climb out. At the center of the maze was a ladder you would climb up to a platform where you could see the whole maze except the part under the 20 foot square platform you were standing on. And that was the tricky part. It seemed that when you went through the center part of the maze you would end up in an unexpected part of the maze, and even though we could see the maze from above, none of it made any sense to how we might get out. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the platform and another hour to get out. I will never go into another maze again.

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by bee_rider on Thursday July 11, 2024 @03:17PM (#40939680)

Speaking of burning men, how do maze organizers typically handle fire safety?

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by leptons on Thursday July 11, 2024 @03:57PM (#40940047)

Fire extinguishers?

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by anyfoo on Thursday July 11, 2024 @04:51PM (#40940516)

I don't know anything about mazers (or fire safety), but, assuming flammable materials like wood, how do they extinguish the fire before it takes over the whole structure?

I guess "professional" mazes may have sprinkler systems. Still, it seems that even in buildings that do, a lot of value is put into maintaining escape routes.

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by klyrs on Thursday July 11, 2024 @05:07PM (#40940621)

Panic

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by bell-cot on Thursday July 11, 2024 @06:01PM (#40940993)

Unless someone is splashing gasoline around, fire will spread very slowly in an open-topped plywood maze. And heat/fumes/smoke will head skyward, not accumulate as they would for an indoor fire.

As an organizer, I'd be much more concerned about medical emergencies and inter-personal crime in the maze.

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by gwbas1c on Thursday July 11, 2024 @03:26PM (#40939742)

Maybe try a corn maze if you have a chance?

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by xivzgrev on Thursday July 11, 2024 @03:56PM (#40940028)

that's the way to go. one time got "lost" in a corn maze about 2/3rd way thru, going in circles, so just finally hopped a row, and followed the path out 30 seconds later. it's supposed to be fun, not stressful.

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by temporarely on Thursday July 11, 2024 @04:32PM (#40940365)

Plywood walls that can be trivially written on.

> I will never go into another [plywood] maze again [...]

... without a marker.

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by marssaxman on Thursday July 11, 2024 @05:06PM (#40940610)

Do you remember which year that was? I'm fairly sure I encountered that project, and I think I found some way to cheat my way out of it without actually solving the maze, though I can't recall the details.

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by bell-cot on Thursday July 11, 2024 @05:24PM (#40940730)

Any reason why "follow the right-hand wall" (and perhaps a few little scratches on the plywood) wouldn't work?

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by cortesoft on Thursday July 11, 2024 @05:30PM (#40940776)

"Follow the right-hand wall" only works if all the walls are connected. It does not work if there are free standing walls.

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by masfuerte on Thursday July 11, 2024 @06:40PM (#40941251)

Very true! I was here [1] a few weeks ago. I'd never done a real-life maze before and assumed it would be easy but with free-standing walls it was quite challenging. I think I explored every branch before reaching the centre.

[1]: https://mazes.co.uk/

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by bell-cot on Thursday July 11, 2024 @09:50PM (#40942162)

With some discreet scratches on the plywood, a "mostly just follow the right-hand wall" rule works.*

Think of each free-standing section of wall as a node in a graph. The graph's edges connect free-standing wall sections which are adjacent. The task is to find (and circumnavigate) all the graph's nodes.

Yes, it could be very tedious to search this alternative representation of the maze for the exit node. Far more likely not - the description was "maybe 150 foot square", not "multi-acre corn maze".

*Assuming a two-dimensional maze, a finite number of free-standing wall sections, flat spacetime, and non-zero lower bound on the width of the maze's paths.

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by leptons on Friday July 12, 2024 @07:25PM (#40950396)

I'm almost certain it was 2002. I think they tried another maze the following year, but I avoided it completely.

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Re:Physicists have created the most fiendishly difficult maze by yencabulator on Thursday July 11, 2024 @05:26PM (#40940748)

Outdoors, I guess you could use direction of sun as a guiding beacon, to decrease the confusion of which way you're pointed. 8ft tall walls in a desert will hide other landmarks I assume.

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