An impossible object is an object that cannot exist according to the known laws of nature, but has a description or representation suggesting, at first sight, that it can.

Drawings of objects that cannot exist are also called "undecidable figures". The undecidability of these figures invariably rests on them being interpreted as two-dimensional projections of what would be an impossible higher-dimensional object. Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd is the "father of impossible figures". He was the first to deliberately design many impossible figures. Dutch artist M. C. Escher is notable for many drawings featuring undecidable figures, sometimes with the entire drawing being an undecidable figure.

Notable examples

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Notable undecidable figures include:

• Impossible cube
• Penrose stairs
• Penrose Triangle
• Blivet (or Devil's Pitchfork)

In fiction

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• In the The Next Generation episode "I, Borg", a plan was made to destroy the entire race of Borg – malevolent cybernetic aliens whose minds were interconnected – by showing one of the Borg a picture of a highly-complex impossible object. This image would be transmitted back to the Borg hive, overloading its consciousness in larger and larger attempts to understand the image. This plan was dismissed as being genocide, so its potential results were never seen.

References

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• Mathematical Circus, Martin Gardner 1979 ISBN 0-14-02-2355-X (Chapter 1 – Optical Illusions)
• Escher's Belvedere

See also

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• Optical illusion
• Paradox
• Puzzle
• Puzzling object
• Unobtainium

External links

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• Printable template for impossible triangle
• Art of Reutersvard
• Things Impossible at cut-the-knot
• Impossible Objects
• Impossible figure (Englisch)

Optical illusions

Unmögliche Figur | Objet impossible | Oggetto impossibile | Onmogelijk figuur