The Maze (Solution)

by Glenn Willen, based on an idea by Amos Eshel; code by Nikolaus Wittenstein

This is a 4-D maze. You can name any cell in it with a pair of letters: one for the box in the left-hand grid, and one for the box in the right-hand grid (using the given grid of letters.)

Find the shortest path through it (starting at AY, where the JavaScript already starts the cursor, and ending at YA, which is the opposite corner. There are no loops, so the shortest path is the only path without backtracking). Each time the shortest path crosses the same letter on the left and right sides, i.e. you are in cell XX for some letter X, record that letter.

The shortest path is as follows, where the arrow keys are spelled "ʌ<V>" and the other directional keys are "WASD":

>VAAVWW<VVSAASʌDDWʌʌ>W>SVDD>>ʌ<<WA>V<<WA<DV>>DW>>V<AAA ʌʌʌ<<<D>SʌA>>VDW>SDVA<DWVASSʌSVAA<W<D>W>ʌAWʌʌ<<<DDDVSA AVSSS>>ʌDVDVW<SA>WVD>>DSʌAWAAAWWDVWʌA<SVW>

The letters passed over spell the answer, UNARY.