| The lithograph Ascending and Descending by M. C. Escher shows
some monks walking up a set of stairs and some monks walking down the stairs.
Yet each monk eventually ends up at the same place he started. No matter
how much a monk walks, he will not gain or lose any altitude. |
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| Escher got the idea for Ascending and Descending after reading
an article by L. S. Penrose. The graphic below shows the original Penrose
drawing on the left and a sliced version of it on the right, which shows
how the deception was accomplished. It can be seen that the staircase is
in a horizontal plane, while the sections lie in a spiral. This is why
slice #1 starts at the upper left and ends up in the lower left, instead
of staying in the same horizontal plane. |
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| A delightful animation of this "impossible staircase" (by James
West of Cambridge, England) appears below: |
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M.C. Escher work (c) Cordon
Art B.V. - Baarn - the Netherlands.
Used by permission. All rights reserved. |
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