next→ 

 ←prev 

 Deutsch 

The Impossible Waterfall

from Michael’s Visual Phenomena & Optical Illusions

“mcwolles”, a German design student, created this brilliant object in 2011. It is a wooden replica of the water path from Escher’s lithograph “Waterfall” from 1961. If you watch this real-life movie, you will see water running upwards and driving a water mill…

Comments

Movie hosted here with mcwolles’ kind permission. I excerpted and cropped the rendition as seen on his YouTube page. There you can also catch a glimpse of himself. Talk of a genius in a garage!

Of course, there are tricks to it, actually two.

• First, the shape only appears “impossible” from one single view angle. The basic impossible shape is composed of two Penrose triangles. I mentioned the close interaction of Escher and the Penroses on my earlier presentation of the “impossible” movie “Halluci”.
  
• Second, there is a trick to the water flow. While I have a strong suspicion, I will not disclose it here until the creator does so himself in his forthcoming “making of”.

The (somewhat disappointing) solution is here and here is a crafty simulation explaining it well.

Sources

McWolles’ YouTube page

M. C. Escher’s original image is presented and discussed on Wikipedia.