Penrose stairs
The Penrose stairs or Penrose steps, also dubbed the impossible staircase, is an
The "continuous staircase" was first presented in an article that the Penroses wrote in 1959, based on the so-called "triangle of Penrose" published by Roger Penrose in the British Journal of Psychology in 1958.
In their original article the Penroses noted that "each part of the structure is acceptable as representing a flight of steps but the connections are such that the picture, as a whole, is inconsistent: the steps continually descend in a clockwise direction."[8]
History of discovery
The Penroses
Escher, in the 1950s, had not yet drawn any impossible stairs and was not aware of their existence. Roger Penrose had been introduced to Escher's work at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Amsterdam in 1954. He was "absolutely spellbound" by Escher's work, and on his journey back to England he decided to produce something "impossible" on his own. After experimenting with various designs of bars overlying each other he finally arrived at the impossible triangle. Roger showed his drawings to his father, who immediately produced several variants, including the impossible flight of stairs. They wanted to publish their findings but did not know in what field the subject belonged. Because Lionel Penrose knew the editor of the British Journal of Psychology and convinced him to publish their short manuscript, the finding was finally presented as a psychological subject. After the publication in 1958 the Penroses sent a copy of the article to Escher as a token of their esteem.[9]
While the Penroses credited Escher in their article, Escher noted in a letter to his son in January 1960 that he was:
working on the design of a new picture, which featured a flight of stairs which only ever ascended or descended, depending on how you saw it. [The stairs] form a closed, circular construction, rather like a snake biting its own tail. And yet they can be drawn in correct perspective: each step higher (or lower) than the previous one. [...] I discovered the principle in an article which was sent to me, and in which I myself was named as the maker of various 'impossible objects'. But I was not familiar with the continuous steps of which the author had included a clear, if perfunctory, sketch, although I was employing some of his other examples.[10]
Escher was captivated by the endless stairs and subsequently wrote a letter to the Penroses in April 1960:
A few months ago, a friend of mine sent me a photocopy of your article... Your figures 3 and 4, the 'continuous flight of steps', were entirely new to me, and I was so taken by the idea that they recently inspired me to produce a new picture, which I would like to send to you as a token of my esteem. Should you have published other articles on impossible objects or related topics, or should you know of any such articles, I would be most grateful if you could send me further details.[10]
At an Escher conference in Rome in 1985, Roger Penrose said that he had been greatly inspired by Escher's work when he and his father discovered both the Penrose tribar structure (that is, the Penrose triangle) and the continuous steps.
Oscar Reutersvärd
The staircase design had been discovered previously by the Swedish artist
Escherian Stairwell
The Escherian Stairwell is a
In popular culture
- The Penrose stairs appeared twice in the movie Inception. This paradoxical illusion can only be realized in the dream worlds of the film. In the film, the hero descends the stairs fleeing from a guard. In the real world, the hero should always be in front of the villain throughout this chase. However, in the case of the Penrose stairs the hero descends another flight of stairs to catch up to the antagonist and catch him unawares.[14]
- The cover of the 2011 album Angles by American rock band The Strokes depicts a complex set of Penrose stairs.
- In their 2015 single called "Greek Tragedy," English rock band The Wombats mentions the Penrose steps.[15]
See also
- Mathematics and art
- Shepard tone
- Strange loop
- Infinite descent
Notes
- ISBN 9783822896372. Archived from the originalon 23 November 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
- ^ Torre, Matteo. "Impossible Pictures: When Art Helps Math Education" (PDF). Impossible Pictures: When Art Helps Math Education. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
- ^ "Endless staircase". Impossible World. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
- ^ a b IllusionWorks 1997
- ^ a b Penrose & Penrose 1958, pp. 31–33
- ^ YouTube, ZenoTheRogue, Ascending and Descending in Nil, retrieved 2022-07-09
- ^ Hallyn 2000, p. 172
- ^ Ernst 1992, p. 72
- ^ a b Ernst 1992, pp. 71–72
- ^ a b Ernst 1992, pp. 75, 78
- ^ Ernst 1992, pp. 70–71
- ^ Schwartz, Heidi (17 May 2013). "The Escherian Stairwell (Penrose Steps) | How It Works". Facility Executive - Creating Intelligent Buildings. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
- ^ Mikkelson, David (6 May 2013). "FACT CHECK: Escherian Stairwell". Snopes.com. Retrieved 18 April 2019. Melikdjanian, Alan (2018), "Escherian Stairwell Deconstruction", Captain Disillusion – via YouTube
- ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
- ^ "Greek Tragedy". Genius. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
References
- Deutsch, Diana (July 2010). "The Paradox of Pitch Circularity" (PDF). Acoustics Today. 6 (3): 8–14. . Retrieved March 16, 2011.
- Ernst, Bruno (1992). The Eye Beguiled: Optical Illusions. ISBN 3-8228-9637-3.
- Hallyn, Fernand (2000). Metaphor and Analogy in the Sciences. Springer. ISBN 978-0-7923-6560-0. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
- IllusionWorks (1997). "Impossible Staircase". Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
- Penrose, L.S.; Penrose, R. (1958). "Impossible objects: A special type of visual illusion". British Journal of Psychology. 49 (1): 31–33. PMID 13536303.
- Lehr, Ferdinand (2022). "Study of algorithmic generation of the Penrose-Staircase". Archive.org. Retrieved February 26, 2024.