Integer triangle cosine equals 0, ±1/2, or ±1. The only ones of these giving an angle strictly between 0° and 180° are the cosine value 1/2 with the angle 60°, the cosine value –1/2 with the angle 120°, and the cosine value 0 with the angle 90°. The only combination of three of these, allowing multiple use of any of them and summing to 180°, is three 60° angles. Conditions are known in terms of elliptic curves for an integer triangle to have an integer ratio "N" of the circumradius to the inradius. The smallest case, that of the equilateral triangle, has
Penrose triangle angles at the vertices of the triangle they form. The beams may be broken, forming cubes or cuboids. This combination of properties cannot be realized by any three-dimensional object in ordinary Euclidean space. Such an object can exist in certain Euclidean 3-manifolds. There also exist three-dimensional solid shapes each of which, when viewed from a certain angle, appears the same as the 2-dimensional depiction of the Penrose triangle on this page (such as – for example – the adjacent image depicting a sculpture in Perth, Australia). The term "Penrose triangle" can refer to the 2-dimensional depiction or the impossible object