Up the Down Staircase

Here is a real life example of "Schröder's staircase" illusion. This optical illusion is one of the more famous, classic reversible figures. Can you see the stairs right side up and upside down?

Up the Down Staircase
Flickr Artist: theentiremikey

Here is the classic version of the illusion.

Schröder's staircase
Looking at the illusion above, if the green wall is closest to you then you will be walking upside down. If the pink wall is closest to you then you are walking upright. Either way you are walking on the same blue treads. Of course if your willing to walk sideways then you can use the black treads.

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Dice on Steps Optical Illusion

Dave Barlow created this illusion and frames it like this,

"The picture shows exactly the same model with two dice set upon it, from opposite viewpoints. The person with the uppermost view swears that the dark die is higher than the light one. The person with the lower view is certain that his friend is seeing things, because clearly, the lighter die is higher than the dark one.

Who is right?"

Dave Barlow
copyright 2012
used w/permission

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Real Impossible Construction?

This optical illusion is very well done. Can you guess the exact nature of this construction.

Hint: Not all seemingly 90 degree angles are even close to 90 degrees.

side by side???
Flickr Artist: erik minnema

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Chessboard Cube

I found this on Hans Kuiper 's Math Art page. I didn't really understand what I was looking at but it was very cool. I continued to poke around the site further and came across the next image. He explains this image in an article first published in the magazine Arthesis, July 2002.

Is it possible to create a piece of Art, which looks, seen from 6 different views, like a chessboard, using only 64 cubes?

That is what I asked myself, having visited a Minimal Art Exhibition in the Gemeente Museum in The Hague, seeing work from Sol LeWitt, an artist of the Minimal Art movement. I read about LeWitt, that in his vision, the idea behind the art work is much more important then the construction of Art itself.
But in my thoughts I saw my Chessboard "Cube" right in the middle of a roudabout, on the crossing of two regtangular ways. On your way to the roundabout you see in front of you the view of the Chessboard, while driving on the roundabout, you experience the anamorphosis, an optical illusion, because the position of each cube to the other cubes changes permanently. Leaving the roundabout you see in your rear-view mirror again the chessboard, independently if you leave at 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4 of the full circle. Read the whole article here.

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Impossibly Linked Ambiguous Rings

Dr. Donald E. Simanek is responsible for the creation of these two illusions. From his site the following info gives us limited insight into who he is.

Title: Professor of Physics at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, Lock Haven, PA, 17745. (1964-1998)

Highest degree: Ph.D. in physics from The Pennsylvania State University (1983).

Interests: Optics, history of science, the science/pseudoscience interface, 3d photography, teaching critical thinking; physics laboratory instruction and physics demonstrations, skepticism; visual illusions, Meccano and Erector designs.

Ambiguous Ring, © Donald E. Simanek, 1996

Below Dr. Simanek modified his Ambiguous Ring above into a truly interesting illusion. This is a more complicated piece that allows the mind to get stuck in unraveling it.


Impossibly linked ambiguous rings. © 2004 by Donald Simanek.

This being a new creation he and his readers are still puzzling over the naming of this illusion. Read his comments about this new creation from his site below.

Finally [Dec, 2004], this illusion evolves into something more interesting. Here two ambiguous rings are ambiguously linked. All of these illustrations are available in higher-resolution versions on request. Readers have suggested several names or captions for it: "the interconnectedness of everything," "a new atomic theory," "tying mental knots," "super-colliding synchronous orbitals," "illusory quantum entanglement," (I like that one.) and "virtual unreality."

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Staircase Optical Illusion

The Staircase

What do you see?
Which way are the stairs? Rightside up or upside down?

If you focus your attention on the ball you'll see that the staircase
will flip and turn upside down.

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