Penrose staircase
English
editEtymology
editAfter a drawing by Lionel Penrose and Roger Penrose.
Noun
editPenrose staircase (plural Penrose staircases)
- An impossible loop of endlessly ascending and descending stairs, or an optical illusion appearing to be one.
- 1989, Martin Gardner, Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers: ...And the Return of Dr. Matrix, New York: Freeman, →ISBN, →OL:
- They are the inventors of the famous "Penrose staircase" that goes round and round without getting higher; Escher depicted it in his lithograph "Ascending and Descending."
- 2010, Diana Deutsch, “The Paradox of Pitch Circularity”, in Acoustics Today, volume 6, number 3, , pages 8–14:
- This pitch paradox has been used to accompany numerous videos of bouncing balls, stick men, and other objects traversing the Penrose staircase, with each step accompanied by a step along the Shepard scale.
Synonyms
editTranslations
editPenrose stairs — see Penrose stairs