Who doesn’t love a good puzzle? Well, maybe anyone who tries this maze, described by the scientists behind it as the “most amazingly difficult” maze in the world.
A fascinating pattern of curves and spikes, the maze was inspired by a knight moving around a chessboard – and a meteorite.
Knights moving in an L shape can only visit each square on the board once and return to the starting point in a pattern known as a Hamiltonian cycle.
Theoretical physicists led by the University of Bristol have used the Hamiltonian cycle to map atoms in a strange matter known as quasicrystals.
Most crystals, such as salt or diamonds, are arranged in perfect patterns that repeat in three dimensions. However, quasi-crystals are mathematically described as living in six dimensions. Stunning.
They are basically everywhere and very hard to map.
They are also very rare, having only been found in nature in a rock from space, the Khatyrka meteorite, found in Russia in 2011.
However, they were created in laboratories and also accidentally after the Trinity Test in 1945, the detonation of the Manhattan Project atomic bomb depicted in the film Oppenheimer.
To try to find some order in these quirky characters, Dr. Felix Flicker and his colleagues used Hamiltonian cycles to map each atom on the surface of certain quasicrystals just once, like a knight on a chessboard, and found that they created remarkably complex and intricate mazes—known in the business like fractals.
“We show that certain quasicrystals represent a special case in which the problem is unexpectedly simple,” Dr Felix said. “That’s why we solve some seemingly impossible problems in this environment. This could include practical purposes involving different fields of science.”
One such problem could be the issue of climate change.
Many hope that the solution to the crisis could be to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through adsorption. Currently, this is often done using crystals that cling to CO2 molecules, and the team hopes that quasi-crystals and their complex structures could be even more effective at trapping greenhouse gases.
Co-author Shobhna Singh, a PhD researcher at Cardiff University, said: “Our work also shows that quasi-crystals can be better than crystals for some adsorption applications. For example, bending molecules find multiple ways to land on the irregularly arranged atoms of quasicrystals.
“Quasi-crystals are also brittle, meaning they break down into tiny grains easily. This maximizes their surface area for adsorption.’
Which is great news, but – let’s be honest – right now everyone just wants to know how to crack the mean maze.
First, like most annoying puzzles, there is more than one solution. As you will see below, there is only one way out of the maze marked in red. If you found this or others, congratulations – you should now go and apply for Mensa.
If not, don’t feel bad, it’s very difficult. Although, and this is a bit of a blow, it is the “easier” of the two mazes the team created.
You’ll need to zoom in to deal with the harder ones below – and no, we’re not done.
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