impossible figure

British  

noun

1. Also called: Escher figure.  a picture of an object that at first sight looks three-dimensional but cannot be a two-dimensional projection of a real three-dimensional object, for example a picture of a staircase that re-enters itself while appearing to ascend continuously

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Example Sentences

In Florida, where Mr. Trump narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, there were 7 counties where the registration rate was more than 100 percent of eligible voters there, a seemingly impossible figure that was matched by 5 in Colorado and 1 in Michigan, the group said.

From Washington Times

Unrwa labels more than five million Palestinians “refugees”—an impossible figure.

From The Wall Street Journal

Barbie has been derided for a lot of things — her anatomically impossible figure, for example — but her career goals seemed on track if not admirable.

From Time

If the task is to find the logical flaw in an impossible figure, then this can be done more quickly if you can distribute your attention everywhere on the figure all at once.

From Scientific American

The trick that makes Escher’s drawings intriguing is a geometric construction psychologists refer to as an “impossible figure,” a line-form suggesting a three-dimensional object that could never exist in our experience.

From Scientific American