this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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Today I Learned

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[–] [email protected] 80 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This isn't true. Go look up the definition for either word, and it doesn't comport with the usage rules claimed.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/labyrinth

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maze

If you do want to draw a sharp distinction in modern usage, you could posit that a labyrinth is a type of maze that was made intentionally and can be walked through.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The real TIL is always in the comments

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

That’s like an internet rule

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

Comic is Oglaf. It's brilliant, but quite NSFW. That is one of the relatively few SFW strips.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Why is everyone fully clothed in that Oglaf strip?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Every now and then, he makes a funny one.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 days ago

Yeah I don't think this is true, certainly nothing else I've seen indicates that this is a defined difference. Hell the page itself seems to disprove the theory in multiple places. As does the origin of the word Labyrinth. After all if Theseus was in a labyrinth with one single path why did he need a string to find his way back?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Labyrinths have sexy Bowie goblins and mazes don’t duh

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wait, is Bowie sexy or are the goblins sexy?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Tell that to all the mazes on the back of cereal boxes!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Hell, some of them didn't even have one path!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

The article links to a Wikipedia page for mazes. The first line of that page says this

A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lead unambiguously through a convoluted layout to a goal

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

So a labyrinth is just a long tedious hallway you can't get lost in?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

A long time ago, I got a maze tattooed on my back. Very soon thereafter, people started telling me this exact thing. Apparently, I in fact got a labyrinth tattooed on my back.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Did anyone else always start at the end and head toward the start? (For mazes on paper)

It's almost always easier to complete when you go backwards.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

That's because the design tends to split into choices when going in one direction, but less so the other direction.

Kind of like how it is essier to make the way from a leaf to the trunk of a tree than to start at a trunk and reach a specific leaf.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I always stick to a side of the walls of the, mmm, "maze" to get to the end

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I love mazes that intentionally defeat this method.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

yeah, me too. It's cool when that happens

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

The method can't be "defeated". It ALWAYS works. But some do slow it down enough that it's probably quicker to just guess and backtrack.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Sorry I lack the time to make something more complex or even enjoyable at the moment, but this should be enough for you to understand how easy defeating that strategy can be.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I stand corrected.

Although, that's not exactly an exit, but I'll give you the point.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

Why isn't it an exit? There could be a ladder or a tunnel or a portal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Good example

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Not true at all. (I see someone else already mentioned it but…)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've heard this before, but I never understood how people find this easier. It's still the exact same maze, you just swap the "start" and "goal" labels.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Paths tend to branch out into dead ends when going in one direction, which would feel more like doubling back when coming from the other direction.

It does depend on the size and overall layout of the maze though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Enough with the fucking labyrinths now. I'm doing the latest Tarkov event and that fucking final labyrinth task will be the death of me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Dance, magic dance.