Continuing my mathematical thoughts from the Skywatch thread, I thought about some fun things coming from the realm of recreational mathematics. One of those topics is illusions. I'm going to post a few of the more interesting ones that I've found, and please feel free to post some of your own.
The first one here is a Ouchi Illusion which is named for its Japanese inventor. In it, the central disk appears to float as the eyes move around the image. :biggrin:
(http://alphanemoon.com/images/misc/ouchi-rund.gif)
Another one is the Penrose stairway. You keep climbing, but never get any higher.
(http://brisray.com/optill/penrose.gif)
And in sticking with Penrose for a moment, here's the Penrose triangle:
(http://www.123opticalillusions.com/pages/penrose_triangle.gif)
The Impossible Torus
(http://www.henrynugroho.org/math/impossible_torus.gif)
The Schroder Staircase. Do you see stairs going up from left to right, or an upside down staircase?
(http://www.cs.brown.edu/~deus/courses/optical/staircase.jpg)
Is this a duck looking left, or a rabbit looking right?
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Duck-Rabbit_illusion.jpg)
Quote from: Locutus on August 19, 2012, 06:40:11 PM
Another one is the Penrose stairway. You keep climbing, but never get any higher.
(http://brisray.com/optill/penrose.gif)
I couldn't quickly find the specific Escher artwork I was looking for, but this is one somewhat like your post - that post and others reminded me of Escher's work of which I am a big fan:
(http://www.mcescher.net/Escher/woodcut16.jpg)