From: "Pan Walker" Wed 4/4/02 5:51 PM Subject: REMOVE CHRIS MCMANUS NOTE, PLEASE!!! To: Hey John, Are you still updating your maze website? Would you please remove Chris McManus' note complaining about the shorter path from 1 to 45 and back to 1, or add a comment to it? His argument is invalid because the directions to the maze specifically say that you must pass through a door bearing a number on it. So the un-numbered doors CANNOT BE USED (they act as one-way doors only), which completely goes against his "logical" deduction. This SHOULD'VE been obvious because of room 24... Thanks, Pan Walker --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: john bailey 4/4/02 6:40 AM Subject: Re: REMOVE CHRIS MCMANUS NOTE, PLEASE!!! To: Pan Walker Hi Pan, I'll be glad to add a note--I may even hot link it. Thanks It would be helpful if you added a bit. Exactly where does it say you must pass through a door bearing a number on it? Book title or URL and page number is enough. John Pan Walker wrote: > Hey John, > > Are you still updating your maze website? > > Would you please remove Chris McManus' note complaining about the shorter > path from 1 to 45 and back to 1, or add a comment to it? > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Pan Walker" 4/4/02 1:23 PM Subject: RE: REMOVE CHRIS MCMANUS NOTE, PLEASE!!! To: "john bailey" Why Chris McManus' shortest route (1:26:36:45:19:31:21:1) is wrong... Originally I thought that it was written that you could only go through a door with a number over it. Thus the doors that are unmarked would be one-way doors. This would seem to be the author's intent, although it does not specifically say so in the Directions to the Maze. However, upon closer inspection, this unwritten rule is proven by the following: 1) In the online/electronic version of the maze (made available by the publisher), you can click on a marked door to proceed to its room but you cannot click on unmarked door. Thus the publisher (if not the author) forced these doors to be one-way in this version. 2) Just because McManus (like most readers, I assume) has figured out which doors lead to which rooms, this does not allow him to specify WHICH unmarked door leads to which room. For example, in his shortest route, you go from room 36 to room 45. In room 36, there are 2 marked doors to rooms 7 and 16, and 2 unmarked doors which come in from rooms 26 and 45. But which of those unmarked doors do you choose? How do you know if the unmarked door on the left leads to 26 or to 45? You can't know, and thus the option should be unavailable. 3) Obviously the illustrations indicate which doors you can and cannot choose, but the text supports this intention as well. In room 6, there is one marked door and 3 unmarked doors, and the narrator says, "We went down the only way open to us..." In room 35, the same scenario, with a visitor saying, "Not much help when there is only one way to go", and the narrator saying, "Still, with no real choice to make, we left..." Again, in room 43, there are 4 unmarked and 2 marked doors, and a visitor asks, "Is it good or bad to have only two choices?" 4) Room 24. "Where are the doors? ... There are no doors." This room is the obvious dead end, as there is no escape. Now McManus would rightly argue that there are in fact 4 doors leading into this room (4, 11, 14, 21, ignoring the bricked-up door in 39). Under his theory, though, these 4 entrances are also 4 exits, when the picture and the text indicate there are no exits. Thus knowing which rooms lead to which rooms does not entitle one to find one's way through the maze through these unmarked one-way doors, which invalidates Chris McManus' complaint about the shortest route being less than 16 steps. Thanks, Pan Walker www.panwalker.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: john bailey To: Chris McManus Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 4:04 PM Subject: Maze mail > Hi Chris, > I got this note *objecting* to your solution. As you can see by scanning these > transcripts, I pushed back and got a modified version of his objection. I plan > to put all three notes in one document in the correspondence directory but > obviously will not comply with his heading. > > Have fun > > John > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Chris McManus" Thu 4/4/02 7:05 PM Subject: Re: Maze mail To: "john bailey" John, hi. While I do not know Pan Walker, I am impressed with his arguments. They are not compelling, but logical. Why do I say they are not compelling? Well, first the argument from the electronic version was not written at the same time as the original book. Whether the author approved of the coding that forces you to choose numbered doors or not, that was a decision made after the book came out, and is not inherent in the original book. As to the text showing for instance three doors, one numbered, and saying, "there was only one choice," that could be taken as implying "right choice", i.e., only one right choice. As to using "numbered" doors alone , there is at least one number (I don't have my book handy but assume there are others) that has fallen face down on the floor. Even if you want to use only numbered doors, why couldn't we pick the sign up and read the number? And how does using only numbered doors keep you from getting confused? You can get royally confused going just among the numbered doors. Actually, Walker hasn't given the most compelling argument. That The book says the shortest solution should have sixteen steps. If you do not add the prohibition against using unnumbered doors, you get a lot shorter solution. But you have violated his requirement that the solution have sixteen steps. The only way the shortest solution has sixteen steps is if you add the stipulation that you can only use marked doors. But I would still quibble whether that stipulation is anyway else forced by the puzzle text. Cheers, Chris ----------------------------------------------------------------------------