The ScIslands
Close

Mission Impossible


Exasperated man

The images provided here depict objects which are technically impossible. Our conscious brain knows they cannot exist in reality, yet the brain's visual processing system interprets them as perfectly feasible visual objects. The puzzle for scientists is how the brain can maintain two completely contradictory conclusions.

How Can it Be?

Impossible figure 1

Ask your students to cover the lower left half of this image with a piece of paper then move the paper so that it covers the upper right half, noticing what they see each time. Both halves of this image are equally possible — it’s just that combining them creates an image which seems achievable on paper but in reality is not achievable at all. Discuss this with your students.

Getting to the Top

Check out these two images! Try drawing a copy of them. At what stage they go from being possible to impossible?


Impossible figure 2 Impossible figure 3

Nothing Impossible Here

Cutting a Mobius Strip

It seems impossible but actually is possible: a one-sided piece of paper.

Get a strip of scrap paper. Of course, it currently has two sides.

Now, bend one end around the other, giving it a half twist and tape the ends together.

Draw a line along the middle. Instead of getting to an edge — the line will cover the entire shape and end up where it started!

This is called a Möbius Strip after the mathematician who discovered it. Experiment with cutting along the line, or making Möbius strips with whole twists. The results are surprising and fun.