As An Optical Illusion or Puzzle
The logo presents a problem in topology. It is a strange loop or rendered as a puzzle
Jurgis Baltrusaitis's (1955) Le Moyen-Âge fantastique. Antiquités et exotismes dans l'art gothique includes a 1576 Dutch engraving with the puzzle given in Dutch and French around the image. It notes:
- The secret is not great when one knows it.
- But it is something to one who does it.
- Turn and turn again and we will also turn,
- So that we give pleasure to each of you.
- And when we have turned, count our ears,
- It is there, without any disguise, you will find a marvel.
"These are the oldest known dated examples of the Three Rabbits as a puzzle." One commentator believes its being a puzzle is likely reason for the image's popularity.
One recent philosophical book poses it as a problem in perception and an optical illusion—an example of contour rivalry. Each rabbit can be individually seen as correct—it is only when you try to see all three at once that you see the problem with defining the hares' ears. This is similar to "The Impossible Tribar" by Roger Penrose, first originated by Oscar Reutersvärd. Compare, M.C. Escher See, Impossible object.
Read more about this topic: Three Hares
Famous quotes containing the words optical, illusion and/or puzzle:
“It is said that a carpenter building a summer hotel here ... declared that one very clear day he picked out a ship coming into Portland Harbor and could distinctly see that its cargo was West Indian rum. A county historian avers that it was probably an optical delusion, the result of looking so often through a glass in common use in those days.”
—For the State of New Hampshire, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Allowing children to spew forth whatever is on their minds in the name of openness only creates an illusion of family closeness.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)
“Scholars and artists thrown together are often annoyed at the puzzle of where they differ. Both work from knowledge; but I suspect they differ most importantly in the way their knowledge is come by. Scholars get theirs with conscientious thoroughness along projected lines of logic; poets theirs cavalierly and as it happens in and out of books. They stick to nothing deliberately, but let what will stick to them like burrs where they walk in the fields.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)