Penrose steps

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English

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Penrose steps

Etymology

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After a drawing by Lionel Penrose and Roger Penrose.

Noun

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Penrose steps pl (plural only)

  1. An impossible loop of endlessly ascending and descending stairs, or an optical illusion appearing to be one.
    • 2010 July 8, Inception (Movie), spoken by Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt):
      In a dream, you can cheat architecture into impossible shapes. That lets you create closed loops, like the Penrose Steps. The infinite staircase.
    • 2011 May 13, Amal A. Islim, Walking with the Vain Cattle: In the Womb of Life, the Plant of Miracle Is Ready to Blossom a White Flower, Bloomington: Balboa Press, →ISBN, →OL:
      I'll have my heaven, / Where heaven is love and love is my heaven. / I just have to climb through those Penrose steps! / Till I find sky number seven.
    • 2012 April 16, Rob Coley with Dean Lockwood, Cloud Time, Alresford: Zero Books, →ISBN, →OL, page 100:
      At this book's inception, when we came to, we found ourselves already traipsing around Penrose steps, already reactively enclosed in an unceasing loop.

Synonyms

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Translations

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