BRAINCHILD PROBLEM NUMBER TWO ANSWER
Res Botanica

Originally: Buffalo Museum of Science
1020 Humboldt Parkway
Buffalo, NY 14214
www.buffalomuseumofscience.org
September 20, 2001
Return to Home

Fill the maze with water. Put the ping pong ball into the starting hole, attach a hose and blow it through. It works because water is incompressible, and the ball just follows the current.

I know, I know, sometimes it doesn't and gets caught in a side alley, but this is the answer anyway. (Maybe attach a small handkerchief to it to catch the current.)

Of course this is not a real np hard solution, since filling the maze with water is a way to explore all dead-end alleys by sending a probe (the water column). But it is a solution to the mechanical puzzle of the maze and the ping pong ball. Doubtless there are other solutions.

R. Zander, Sept. 20, 2001