[HN Gopher] Even Been to This Free London Yew Maze?
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       Even Been to This Free London Yew Maze?
        
       Author : serhack_
       Score  : 39 points
       Date   : 2023-08-20 13:03 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (londonist.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (londonist.com)
        
       | nly wrote:
       | I live maybe 20-25 minutes walk from here and never heard of this
        
       | harel wrote:
       | Not free, but not a short walk from where I live is the Hampton
       | Court maze, which is the oldest hedge maze in Britain:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampton_Court_Maze
        
       | tempaway41114 wrote:
       | There's another great maze in London called "Zone 1", many
       | tourists and locals get completely lost in there every day
        
       | nsteel wrote:
       | There are loads of gaps which pretty much ruin the maze. The
       | photos here have been very kind. It's really not worth a trip,
       | I'm saying that as someone who lives 10 mins away and has kids.
       | However, the tiny zoo there is a good visit.
        
         | wussboy wrote:
         | You know you don't need to use the gaps, right?
        
           | nsteel wrote:
           | Please come and explain that to my young daughter. Some of
           | the gaps are now arguably new pathways and it's all over in a
           | couple of mins. For everyone else, save yourself the trip.
        
       | LeoPanthera wrote:
       | More of a Labyrinth than a maze, since it has only a small number
       | of very short dead-ends. The majority of the maze can be solved
       | by simply picking a direction at at random, most paths eventually
       | lead to the goal, just with varying lengths.
        
         | devnullbrain wrote:
         | >A maze is a complex, branching (multicursal) puzzle that
         | includes choices of path and direction, while a labyrinth is
         | unicursal, i.e., has only a single, non-branching path, which
         | leads to the center.
         | 
         | TIL
        
       | tromp wrote:
       | A map of the Millenium Maze:
       | https://i.etsystatic.com/33392302/r/il/e40c9a/3604868640/il_...
        
         | pimlottc wrote:
         | Spoiler alert
        
           | tuukkah wrote:
           | Also mapped on OSM with the name Millennium Maze:
           | https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/4940708
        
             | tromp wrote:
             | Nice, but they could have used some more contrasting color
             | for the maze paths...
        
               | LeoPanthera wrote:
               | "OSM" is just data. You can supply your own renderer.
        
               | tuukkah wrote:
               | The orange highlight will disappear if you click the X.
               | 
               | Also, if the hedges were mapped, they would appear in
               | dark green on the map.
        
         | OscarCunningham wrote:
         | Ah, a maze where the 'left-hand rule' doesn't help.
        
           | teekert wrote:
           | Oh no! Guess we need a slime mold to solve it.
        
           | PartiallyTyped wrote:
           | What kind of structure do mazes where the left-hand rule
           | doesn't help have?
           | 
           | From a first glance, cycles, but is it really a maze without
           | those?
        
             | kfixjviv wrote:
             | They are referred to as "multiply connected" in the
             | literature on mazes. Essentially, this is the mathematical
             | way of saying that there are "islands" of hedge, not
             | attached to the perimeter.
        
             | LeoPanthera wrote:
             | A maze where the goal is not on the edge of the maze. In
             | this case, the goal is in the center.
             | 
             | 3-dimensional mazes (which have bridges or tunnels) also
             | often cannot be solved with this rule.
        
               | zvr wrote:
               | You first statement is not correct. The rule is perfectly
               | useful to solve mazes where the goal is in the center.
               | 
               | The requirement is that the walls should be connected,
               | i.e. that there are no free-standing walls somewhere in
               | the maze not connected to the border walls, for example.
        
               | LeoPanthera wrote:
               | I stand corrected! I suppose it is possible to have a
               | center goal that is connected to the edge by a wall.
        
             | Shared404 wrote:
             | The left hand rule assumes that the end is on the same
             | "cycle" as the entrance:                  --E--       |
             | |       |     |        --S--
             | 
             | if the end is instead on a different "cycle", it won't
             | work:                  -------       |       |       | --
             | -- |       ||     ||       ||  E  ||       | ----- |
             | |       |        ---S---
             | 
             | Hopefully this makes sense. I'm sure there's a propper
             | phrasing of this in topology, but I don't know it.
        
               | kfixjviv wrote:
               | "Multiply connected" is the topological term used in the
               | English-language literature on mazes.
        
             | curiousgal wrote:
             | Any maze with a wall that loops around itself.
        
             | OscarCunningham wrote:
             | Yes, in a maze without cycles the left-hand rule will take
             | you through every part of the maze, guaranteeing that you
             | reach the goal.
             | 
             | Of course in a maze with cycles you might still reach the
             | goal, but it's not guaranteed. For example there's a cycle
             | in Hampton Court Maze, but the left- and right-hand rules
             | both get you to the goal from the entrance.
        
       | eastbaydev wrote:
       | that is very neat, I will try to check this out next time I am in
       | London
        
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       (page generated 2023-08-20 23:01 UTC)