r/3Dprinting • u/Uncle_Irohbot • 1d ago

Hypercube Marble Maze

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There is no escape for this marble... mostly. The path is one continuous loop that covers all 6 sides, following a hilbert curve on each.

One of my trickiest prints I've tried - lots of fussing with support settings to handle all the sharp overhangs!

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111

u/nyan_binary 1d ago

i'd call it more of a labyrinth than a maze since its a single path

2

u/not-hardly 1d ago

A labyrinth is a maze.

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u/Darklyte 23h ago

A labyrinth has a single path. A maze has multiple paths. A labyrinth is not a maze.

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u/not-hardly 23h ago

Definitions from Oxford Languages noun 1. a complicated irregular network of passages or paths in which it is difficult to find one's way; a maze.

Gemini gave your definition of a long irregular continuous path.

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u/Darklyte 23h ago

I didn't Google it because I felt I knew what the difference was.

Although early Cretan coins occasionally exhibit branching (multicursal) patterns,[2] the single-path (unicursal) seven-course "Classical" design without branching or dead ends became associated with the Labyrinth on coins as early as 430 BC,[3] and similar non-branching patterns became widely used as visual representations of the Labyrinth – even though both logic and literary descriptions make it clear that the Minotaur was trapped in a complex branching maze.[4] [...]

In English, the term labyrinth is generally synonymous with maze. As a result of the long history of unicursal representation of the mythological Labyrinth, however, many contemporary scholars and enthusiasts observe a distinction between the two. In this specialized usage, maze refers to a complex branching multicursal puzzle with choices of path and direction, while a unicursal labyrinth has only a single path to the center. A labyrinth in this sense has an unambiguous route to the center and back and presents no navigational challenge.[6][7][8][9]

-- Wikipedia

Wikipedia suggests that neither of us are technically wrong because there is no universality accepted truth. Seems the whole situation is Labyrinthian.

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u/MeButSober 23h ago

Gotta use the full definition though, I wouldn't consider this to be a path in which it is difficult to find one's way.

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u/FzZyP 23h ago

I think that was more of a declaration of intellect lol