Penrose triangle: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article

All Topics

Penrose triangle

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

	Penrose triangle
	Home Discussion
	Topics Penrose triangle Topic Home The Penrose triangle, also known as the tribar, is an impossible objectImpossible object An impossible object is an object that cannot exist according to the known laws of nature, but has a description or represen... . It was first created by the Swedish artist Oscar ReutersvärdOscar Reutersvärd Oscar Reutersv?rd , "the father of the impossible figure", was an artist who pioneered the art of impossible objects.... in 1934. The mathematicianMathematician A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of mathematics.... Roger PenroseRoger Penrose Sir Roger Penrose, OM, FRS is an English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Un... independently devised and popularised it in the 1950s, describing it as "impossibility in its purest form". It is featured prominently in the works of artist M. C. EscherM. C. Escher Summary Maurits Cornelis Escher was a Dutch graphic artist known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs and me... , whose earlier depictions of impossible objects partly inspired it. The tribar appears to be a solidSolid A solid object is in the phase of matter characterized by resistance to deformation and changes of volume.... object, made of three straight beams of square cross-section which meet pairwise at right angles at the vertices of the triangleTriangle Overview A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three vertices and three sides which are straight line seg... they form. This combination of properties cannot be realized by any 3-dimensional object. Nevertheless, there do exist 3-dimensional solid shapes each of which, when viewed from a certain angle, has the appearance of possessing all the qualities mentioned in the above paragraph. That is, it appears the same as the purple, green, and yellow 2-dimensional depiction of the Penrose triangle on this page. M.C. Escher's lithograph WaterfallWaterfall (M. C. Escher) *Waterfall* is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M.C.... depicts a watercourse that flows in a zigzag along the long sides of two elongated Penrose triangles, so that it ends up two stories higher than it began. The resulting waterfall, forming the short sides of both triangles, drives a water wheelWater wheel A water wheel is a hydropower system; a system for extracting power from a flow of water.... . Escher helpfully points out that in order to keep the wheel turning some water must occasionally be added to compensate for evaporationEvaporation Evaporation is one of the two forms of vaporization.... . There exists some terminological confusion over whether "Penrose triangle" refers to the 2-dimensional depiction of an impossible 3-dimensional object, or that impossible object itself. Philosophically, it is unclear what "that impossible object" refers to. Perhaps it refers to a set of conditions that cannot be satisfied, perhaps to an abstract entity that is depicted as satisfying those conditions (but does not actually satisfy them). If a line is traced around the Penrose triangle, a 3-loop Möbius stripMöbius strip The Mbius strip or Mbius band is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component.... is formed. Other Penrose polygons While it is possible to construct a Penrose triangle with other regular polygons to create a Penrose polygon, the visual effect is not as striking, and as the sides increase, the image seems to be warped or twisted. External links