Penrose steps

English

Penrose steps

Etymology

After a drawing by Lionel Penrose and Roger Penrose.

Noun

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

• Penrose staircase
• Penrose stairs

Translations

Penrose stairs — see Penrose stairs