Video Description: An auditory illusion of a tone that continuously descends, while not getting any lower. Source:
JoseJimeniz.
A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. When played with the base pitch of the tone moving upwards or downwards, it is referred to as the Shepard scale. This creates the auditory illusion of a tone that continually ascends or descends in pitch, yet which ultimately seems to get no higher or lower.
The acoustical illusion can be constructed by creating a series of overlapping ascending or descending scales,
similar to the Penrose stairs.
The Penrose stairs is an impossible object created by Lionel Penrose and his son Roger Penrose. It can be seen as a variation on the Penrose triangle. It is a two-dimensional depiction of a staircase in which the stairs make four 90-degree turns as they ascend or descend yet form a continuous loop, so that a person could climb them forever and never get any higher. This is clearly impossible in three dimensions Source:
Wikipedia
Shepard tone,
Penrose
stairs.
