Maze

A maze is a complex collection of paths designed to lead a person from an entrance to a specific goal.

These structures can serve as tour puzzles, where branching paths force a solver to choose the correct route. Some patterns are much simpler and do not branch at all. These non-branching patterns are called unicursal. While the term labyrinth is often used as a synonym for maze, it can specifically describe these unicursal patterns. Mazes can be permanent structures or temporary puzzles that change during a game.

Constructing a maze involves choosing specific materials to define the walls and passages. Permanent mazes often use hedges, turf, stone walls, or bricks.

Other mazes are transitory, meaning they are meant to be temporary. People create these using straw bales, snow, or even corn stalks. Maize mazes are a popular seasonal attraction found in crop fields. Because they are grown from crops, they usually only last for one growing season. Indoor mirror mazes offer a different experience by using reflections to create imaginary paths.

Generating a maze is the technical process of designing the layout of walls and passages. Designers use different methods to achieve this goal. In a method called "carving passages," the maker first marks out the network of available routes. In the "adding walls" method, the maker starts with an open area and places obstructions within it. This process can be done manually by hand or automatically using computer algorithms. Once the design is set, the act of finding the route from start to finish is called solving.

There are many specialized types of mazes that follow unique rules. A fractal maze contains holes where the maze pattern repeats itself at smaller scales.

Hamilton mazes require the solver to find a unique path called a Hamiltonian cycle. Logic mazes use specific rules, rather than just physical walls, to restrict how a person moves. Some mazes include loops and traps, such as one-way doors. These doors might lead to the correct path or act as a trap that sends the player back to the start. A picture maze is a standard maze that reveals a specific image once it is solved.

Mathematics and science play a major role in understanding these structures. The mathematician Leonhard Euler was a pioneer in analyzing plane mazes mathematically. His work contributed significantly to topology, which is a branch of mathematics. In graph theory, mazes that contain no loops are called "perfect" or "standard" mazes. These are considered equivalent to a tree structure. If you were to stretch out the paths of a perfect maze, the result would resemble a tree.

Psychologists also use mazes as tools for scientific research. They use various maze designs to study how living things learn and navigate through space. These experiments often involve mice or rats. Common types of research mazes include the Barnes maze, the Morris water maze, and the T-maze. Other versions include the Radial arm maze, the Oasis maze, and the Elevated plus maze. These controlled environments help scientists observe spatial navigation in a structured way.

Mazes exist on a massive scale all over the world. In Denmark, the Samsø Labyrinten is the largest permanent maze, covering 60,000 square meters.

In Spain, the largest maze covers 5,625 square meters. Some mazes are even part of city planning. The city of Camagüey in Cuba was designed with a maze-like layout of narrow streets. This design was intended to make it difficult for attackers to move through the city. In North America, the Edmonton Corn Maze in Alberta, Canada, once held the record for the world's largest QR code.

Beyond physical structures, mazes have become a staple of modern digital culture. The "maze game" is a specific genre of video games that emerged in the 1980s. In these games, the entire playing field is a maze. Players must navigate these digital corridors to escape monsters or outrace opponents. Whether they are made of living hedges or digital pixels, mazes continue to challenge the human mind through the art of navigation.