Different kind of mazes

Path research - Maze

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maze
 * Round maze.jpg-in-a-maze puzzles
 * Dexterity puzzles which involve navigating a ball through a maze or labyrinth.
 * Ball-in-a-maze puzzles are dexterity puzzles which involve manipulating either a maze (or labyrinth) or one or several balls so that the ball or balls are manoeuvered towards a goal. Toys like this have been popular since Pigs in Clover

was invented by Charles Martin Crandall in the 1880s, with the patent being applied for in 1889.

In some versions a wooden labyrinth is tilted using two knobs and the ball has to be navigated past a series of holes and obstacles. A magnet is used in other versions where the balls have to be manipulated rather than the maze. Perplexus is an example of a 3D ball-in-a-maze. Recently a large number of virtual versions have become available.


 * Block maze
 * A maze in which the player must complete or clear the maze pathway by positioning blocks. Blocks may slide into place or be added.


 * Labyrinth maze (Labyrimaze)Labyrinth,maze-c6218f53e8e14d14655bd867c15143ff h.jpg
 * A mix between a labyrinth and a maze. Incorporating a labyrinths single universal path, but also having maze like branches or decision points. Trace through every possible path as a single movement until returning to the same starting point, but never backtrack or lift from the path.


 * Linear or railroad maze
 * A maze in which the paths are laid out like a railroad with switches

and crossovers. Solvers are constrained to moving only forward. Often, a railroad maze will have a single track for entrance and exit.


 * Logic mazes
 * These are like standard mazes except they use rules other than "don't cross the lines" to restrict motion.
 * Logic mazes, sometimes called 'mazes with rules', are logic puzzles with all the aspects of a tour puzzle that fall outside of the scope of a typical maze. These mazes have special rules, sometimes including multiple states of the maze or navigator. Popular logic mazes include tilt mazes and other novel designs which usually increase the complexity of the maze, sometimes to the point that the maze has to be designed by a program to eliminate multiple paths. Additional examples include:
 * Area-mazes or A-mazes, which the area of the tile stepped on must alternately increase and decrease with every step.
 * Rolling dice mazes, in which a die is rolled onto cells based on various rules.
 * Number mazes, in which a grid of numbers is navigated by traveling the number shown on the current square.
 * Multi-State mazes, in which the rules for navigation change depending on how the maze has been navigated.


 * Area-mazes or A-mazes, which the area of the tile stepped on must alternately increase and decrease with every step.
 * Rolling dice mazes, in which a die is rolled onto cells based on various rules.
 * Number mazes, in which a grid of numbers is navigated by traveling the number shown on the current square.
 * Multi-State mazes, in which the rules for navigation change depending on how the maze has been navigated.
 * Loops and traps maze
 * A maze that features one-way doors. The doors can lead to the correct path or create traps that divert you from the correct path and lead you to the starting point. The player may not return through a door through which he has entered, so dead ends may be created. The path is a series of loops interrupted by doors. Through the use of reciprocal doors, the correct path can intersect the incorrect path on a single plane. A graphical variant of this maze type is an arrow maze.


 * Mazes in higher dimensions[[File:Free-shipping-720-degree-three-dimensional-maze-Exercise-the-child-s-ability-thinking-skills-and-the.jpg|thumb|190x190px]]
 * It is possible for a maze to have three or more dimensions. A maze with bridges is three-dimensional, and some natural cave systems are three-dimensional mazes. The computer game Descent uses fully three-dimensional mazes. Any maze can be mapped into a higher dimension without changing its topology.


 * Number maze
 * A maze in which numbers are used to determine jumps that form a pathway, allowing the maze to criss-cross itself many times.


 * Picture maze
 * RulesPicture maze solved.png
 * Picture mazes require no special rules or learning. The rules are very simple:
 * Draw a path from the entrance to exit of the puzzle, avoiding the dead ends.
 * Fill the squares along the path to reveal the hidden picture.

It is interesting to note that because of two rules, it is far simpler to reverse the process to solve this puzzle. Starting at a dead end, the path is filled until it reaches an intersection with three or more paths connecting to it. This process is repeated until all dead-end paths are filled, often showing the shortest path. On larger pieces, this is the only way to solve, as there are too many possible but incorrect paths, and chance of finding the correct path based on intuition, logic or simple luck is almost nonexistent.
 * A standard maze that forms a picture when solved.
 * History
 * Picture Mazes were first pioneered by Francesco Segala, a 15th-century architect from Padua, Italy. He created puzzle maze designs, mainly in figurative forms. His designs included ships, dolphins, crabs, dogs, snails, horsemen and human figures. It is doubtful whether any of his designs were actually constructed in hedges. (Further information and illustration in the book "Secrets of the Maze"

by Adrian Fisher, page 35).

In 1975, the English maze designer Randoll Coate began his life's work of creating numerous "symbolic" mazes, which combined a distinctive outer image with further internal symbols and images. His earliest works, built as hedge mazes in the landscape, included "Imprint" (a gigantic footprint) in a private garden in Oxfordhsire, England in 1975; "Creation" (egg-shaped, containing a Minotaur, and - alternatively but superimposed - the Garden of Eden story) at Varmlands Saby, Varmlands, Sweden, in 1977; and "Pyramid" at the Château de Belœil, Belgium, in 1979. Randoll Coate went on to create many dozens of further Symbolic Mazes, 15 in conjunction with fellow Englishman Adrian Fisher.

Pictures mazes were also created in Japan sometime before 1986. Since then manually created picture mazes became popular in Japanese puzzle magazines published by Gakken, Nikoli Nikoli, Sun and other Japanese publishers.

The world's first cornfield maize maze was a Picture Maze, portraying a Stegosaurus (it being the year that the film Jurassic Park was premiered). This maze was created in 1993 at Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania, USA. It was the first of six cornfield maize mazes, each designed by Adrian Fisher, that have set Guinness World Records for progressively larger maize mazes, each one being a Picture Maze.


 * Turf mazes and mizmazes
 * A pattern like a long rope folded up, without any junctions or crossings.

Writer: Tien N.