I’ve been in the middle of a field of corn (not a maze). It’s surprisingly easy to get disoriented. The corn grows very high, higher than me at least, so I couldn’t see anything beyond a few feet in any direction. Very quickly I lost any sense of direction.
I do understand being disoriented in a corn field. I’ve lived in the Land 'o Corn my entire life. My dad instilled the Fear in my when I was a kid to not wander too far into the field or I would have trouble finding my way out. I have a internal sense of direction plus the whole sun rises in the east thing, I don’t think I would get disoriented to the point of calling 911.
I didn’t realize that they didn’t just use a regular corn field and cut the paths into it. If the corn was planted willy-nilly it would be much easier to not walk a straight path out of the maze.
There’s a corn maze near me, and it isn’t planted willy-nilly. It might be planted slightly closer together than in an conventional field, but it’s still planted in rows that would be easy to navigate out of. You’d do no damage to the corn by walking down one of the rows.
Course, they also give you a map at my corn maze too, so you’d be hard pressed to get really lost.
Oh! My corn maze: Sever’s.
When I was a kid, when we visited relatives who lived out in the country, we thought it great fun to deliberately get lost in cornfields (ordinary ones, not intended as mazes). It’s not that hard, though we always managed to find our way out before time for the next meal.
But could you do it while wearing a suit, feverishly running and taking cover, while a low flying crop duster buzzes you releasing gas and fires weapons from overhead?
As I was heading through a corn maze recently, I asked myself this same question. What’s the best way to find the end?
Taking just left turns, say, won’t cut it. If the maze has bridges or loops or exits-in-the-center, then you could wind up walking around forever. (This is assuming you refuse to give up and leave via the entrance.)
So I posed a question to myself (for in a maze, you’ve got nothing but time), could I use all the people around me to help? I don’t mean ask them directions, or compare notes. But instead of basing my turns on a “just turn left” strategy, could I base it on whether or not I see people in that direction? My idea was this:
Fear the Known
Walk randomly. However, when choosing which way to go, if you see people walking toward you, assume they are coming from a dead end. Go the other way.
Simply put, and I argue that’ll get you through a maze faster. But to find it out, we need to submit it to the true test: experiment. I pulled together a simulation comparing a few corn maze strategies:
To the Corn Maze Strategy Tester!
This simulator allows you to test repeatedly and see which strategy is best. Give it a shot.
Of course they could have. Recall that various dimbulbs have called 911 for any number of trivial reasons.
What perplexes me is that they were “lost” in the first place. The worst I can recall ever being lost is when I somehow missed where two dim trails split, and followed the “wrong” one. I came out on the Forest Service road I was parked on and - didn’t know which direction my car was in! :eek: (Within about a quarter mile - more divergence would have been noticable.) So I found a soft spot in the road and looked for my tire tracks …
The last corn maze I was in never had ANY doubt of which way was “home.” They had an air-powered cannon that shot corn ears, and you could hear it anywhere in the maze. Kinda made me think of a flatulent elephant. The real trick was finding the checkpoints - one set was marked on the map, and one set wasn’t.
This assumes that you waited until you were lost before you decided to start following a wall. If you start following a wall from the moment you enter the maze, it will always lead you to the exit. It may not be the optimum route or the longest route, but it will always be a successful route.
The corn maze in question was about an acre total, and while I can understand getting lost within the maze, I can’t understand getting completely disoriented. As the article points out, they were 25 feet from the road. If you look at it on google maps, there are power lines along the road which had to be visible from where they were standing.
There was also a printed map and signs within the maze.
Just saying.
Plus:
- Never leave home without a GPS.
- Always waypoint the car as soon as you get out.
Has geocaching taught you nothing?
I’ve been in a corn maze with a 5-year old on a really hot day and after about 5 minutes she just started freaking out. Had I not known we were close to the entrance, I would have done my best to push through the maze walls (although as I remember it, they were pretty close together, so it would have been hard).
It’s easy to mock this family, but when you have a screaming, frightened kid with you, you’ll do anything to MAKE IT STOP!
They put high-powered electric fences in between the rows. At least, that’s the one the Simpsons were in. They ultimately had to get Santa’s Little Helper to locate Homer.
The only corn maze I was ever in had fairly prominently marked gates to a dedicated “escape” lane, which would take you out if you gave up. As you wandered you came across these gates often enough that you would really have to work at it to get trapped in the maze.
That’s lovely to see and fun to use.
So, this late in the season, corn mazes are pretty dried out. What would happen if a corn maze caught on fire, with dozens of people inside? Even with a mild breeze, it could go up pretty fast.
Pretty high casualty rate?
This is how two middle-aged moms got out when lost:
- Push through corn rows.
- Aggravate “spotters” with flashlights and radios perched on platforms above the maze.
- Get thrown out.
Our children were so embarrassed.
Sure, but the fact that what they chose to do was call 911 represents a level of helplessness that’s astonishing, especially for parents.
Eerily prescient: We had a hay bale maze fire here in town today. I haven’t heard of any casualties, but the entire city is blanketed in smoke.
The left-hand rule still applies, but speed of traversal becomes paramount.