Penrose triangle
Triángulo de Penrose
- Date
- 1934 (Reutersvärd) / 1958 (Penrose) · confidence medium
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Roger Penrose and Lionel Penrose
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Father and son described and popularized the impossible triangle, a figure that looks like a coherent three-dimensional structure but cannot be built in real space, calling it "impossibility in its purest form". Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd had already drawn the same figure in 1934, unbeknownst to the Penroses.
Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd independently created the same figure in 1934, more than twenty years before the Penroses, though the triangle ended up bearing their name due to the impact of their 1958 paper.
What it led to
- M. C. Escher's lithographs based on impossible figures
- Psychological study of optical illusions