Hi, Rasmus,   It’s great to hear from you.  I wondered about that, although the 
way I conceived of it was different.  What, I wondered, if they put a smaller 
Hampton maze inside the goal box of a Hampton maze.  I would walk right by the 
entrance not matter if I had my whiskers on the right wall or the left.  

 

Hi, Cody,  Thanks for the tip 

 

Nick

 

Nick Thompson

 <mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com> thompnicks...@gmail.com

 <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> 
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of Alexander Rasmus
Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2021 6:43 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] solving mazes

 

Nick,

 

Assuming that every intersection is 3-way isn't enough to guarantee that the 
maze is simply connected, see attached. If you put the exit in the no go region 
then the wall following strategy doesn't work, as entrance and exit won't be 
connected. 



 

Best,

Alex

 

On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 5:10 PM cody dooderson <d00d3r...@gmail.com 
<mailto:d00d3r...@gmail.com> > wrote:

I am assuming this is a 2D maze. Wikipedia does a better job at explaining the 
problems with wall following than I can. 

 

If the maze is not simply-connected (i.e. if the start or endpoints are in the 
center of the structure surrounded by passage loops, or the pathways cross over 
and under each other and such parts of the solution path are surrounded by 
passage loops), this method will not reach the goal.

 

 

On Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 1:48 PM <thompnicks...@gmail.com 
<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com> > wrote:

Hi, All, 

 

Due to a review I have been working on, I have been dragged back into thinking 
about maze learning in rats.  Any animal I have ever known, when confined, will 
explore the boundaries of its enclosure.  Cows, for instance will beat a path 
just inside the barbed wire that encloses them.  So a maze is not only a series 
of pathways but it is also an enclosure.  If the rat puts his left whisker 
against the left wall of the maze, he will eventually get to the goal box, 
right.  It works with the Hampton Court Maze.  On the second run, he can now 
use odor cues, such that any time he encounters his own odor both entering and 
leaving a passage way, he should just skip that passage way.  

 

So I am wondering, you topologists (??) out there, how general is the 
statement, “every maze is an enclosure”  and what is the limitation on the idea 
that any maze can be solved by putting your right or left hand on a wall and 
continuing to walk until you find the goal or are let out of the maze.  Now I 
should quickly say that rat mazes are usually composed of a series of 
bifurcating choice points, where the rat can go either left or right. Some 
choices lead ultimately to dead ends.  In sum, a runway in such a maze can go 
straight, turn R or L without choice or form a T with a right or left choice.  
My intuition is that no such maze can be designed that does not permit the 
boundary following strategy.  

 

Nick 

 

Nick Thompson

thompnicks...@gmail.com <mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com> 

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

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