HOLEY CHIP - THIS THREE-DIMENSIONAL MAZE WILL BOGGLE YOUR MIND

Paul Heusinkveld was always good at solving mazes. As a child, penciling a path
to take Farmer Brown from the barn to the chicken coop, he developed a keen
sense of spatial awareness. He mastered newspaper mazes, quickly completing
them in ink, and then dreamed of greater challenges-labyrinths in which paths
went over and under each other and disappeared from view as they coiled around
each other and behind a solid surface.

The inspiration the design of such mazes came after Heusinkveld joined the U.S.
Navy as a mechanical engineer. He began creating tubular mazes that resemble a
ship's web of pipes and ducts. In the surrealistic results, which we featured
in May 1989, you must follow pathways that sometimes lie hidden behind the
structure.

Now a Navy commander stationed in Arlington, Virginia, Heusinkveld designs
intricate computer interface systems that have, in turn, inspired yet another
type of maze. In these three-dimensional mazes the paths run like ribbons
around solid objects.

On his three-dimensional cube you must find your way from start to finish,
following a path that goes over and under other stretches of the path, which
covers all six sides of the cube. Heusinkveld offers two views of the maze: One
image shows a perspective of the top as viewed from one corner; the second image
provides a perspective from the opposite corner, from the back and the bottom of
the cube. Together, the two images provide a view of all six sides. To solve
Heusinkveld's maze quickly, you must visualize the entire cube and determine
where the path goes when it turns a corner and disappears before reappearing on
the other side.

Asked to create an even more challenging maze, Heusinkveld came up with his
Holey Chip, shown here. The image on the left shows the front of the chip; the
right, the back. Inspired intricate circuit this imaginary has two holes i
travels around the chip, as well as through the holes. The challenge is to get
from + to - and complete the circuit. If you can do it in less than ten
minutes, you've got a great 3-D sense. The answer will appear next month.

ANOTHER ROUND

Last month we announced the grand prize-winner and runners-up in Competition
#52: Mixed-up Drinks. We didn't have room for all the entries that deserved
honorable mention. But they were too good not to offer the following second
round.

• Holy Cow (root beer, ice cream, and holy water)
Joe Vecchio, San
Diego

• Stormy Weather (White Lightning and Thunderbird); Orient Express (sake and
Night Train)
Robin Neill, Lake Oswego, OR

• Chuck Yeager (ground beef and Jagermeister)
Nick Liberski, West Allis, WI

• Bloody Sundae (vodka, tomato juice, and ice cream)
Joseph Lisiewski, Cleveland

• Eli Whitney (gin and cottonseed oil)
G. A. Mueller, Seattle