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Emagine a large perfect sphear shapped mirror with the reflective side facing in, there are no cracks or any flaws period.


1. What would you see if you were inside?? (you have a flash light)



Sort of like this pic but the reflective side is facing in and you are inside
http://www.paulcheksblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Sphere-of-Mirror-by-Po-Shu-Wang.jpg

I would imagine that you'd see an inverted reflection (like looking into the "dip" side of a spoon), which would shift and flow in accordance with where you look and how you move. Further, you'd have multiple light spots all over the interior. Basically, I don't see the reflection being symmetrical because the observer and lightsource aren't symmetrical.

Good visual exercise.

If you turn off the flashlight wouldnt light still be trapped in there for eternity? It has no where to escape..

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
If you turn off the flashlight wouldnt light still be trapped in there for eternity? It has no where to escape..

The light would be absorbed very quickly. Even if the mirrors are extremely reflective (say only .01% of light is absorbed) it would be gone in less than a second.

Is there any material thats 100% reflective?

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
If you turn off the flashlight wouldnt light still be trapped in there for eternity? It has no where to escape..
Mirrors don't reflect all of the light... a lot is actually lost.

Originally posted by King Kandy
Mirrors don't reflect all of the light... a lot is actually lost. Ditto, the light would dissipate, unless the mirrored surface somehow amplified the light in which case the sphere would almost instantly be destroyed via feedback and anyone inside would be vaporized.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
The light would be absorbed very quickly. Even if the mirrors are extremely reflective (say only .01% of light is absorbed) it would be gone in less than a second.


He's talking about what we'd see IF it was 100% reflective. That would also indicate that it needs to be a pure vacuum. Impossible for several reasons, though.


In that instance, the sphere would just grow brighter up to a point of saturation. There's several ways it can become saturated. The clothing of the individual only reflects certain wavelengths of light and absorbs others (in the case of the visible spectrum). Photons are bosons. Bosons can occupy the same physical space as others. There is no limit to the number of photons that can occupy the same space (as far as I know...and this is probably the actual premise of your question, is it not? That photons are bosons? ). Other reasons that it would saturate are: you are evaporating through processes known as sublimation, respiration, and perspiration. So you will quickly fill up the vacuum with your own gas particles causing them to absorb some of the energy and reflect and scatter SOME of that energy. Then you have the components of your eyes that will interfere, reflect, and/or absorb some of the EMR: the aqueous and vitreous humour, lens, possibly the hyaloid canal, and the retina. Then there's the exposed flesh of yourself that also absorbs, reflects, and/or scatters EMR. Then there's the material of the sphere, itself, sublimating, which leads to the same.

Also, if you turn the flashlight on, there is a finite amount of photons emitted from the flashlight. Meaning, it wouldn't have an infinitely long wave-form: it would only be able to reflect around so many times. Of course, that would strongly depend on how long you left the flashlight on.

Summary: No perfect mirror can exist in our universe for the reasons I have outlined. In addition, Hawking radiation ensures that the instant your mirror is created, an antiparticle-particle pair will pop into existence with the anti-particle coming into contact with a particle from your mirror and annihilating (thus destroying your perfection) so you would not be able to produce the "infinite brightness". Next, your own body would interfere. Next, sublimation ensures that the vacuum of the sphere would quickly cease being a vacuum as the gas particles would fill the empty space (just think...you can smell certain metals. How can you smell them unless particles have not evaporated for you to smell? AHA! lol)


However, I am in no position to tell you how bright it would get inside the sphere if you turned on and left on your flashlight. Your body would block much of the light from being reflected so you would reach a saturation point and quite quickly. It would be far brighter than must people would assume, of course.



It feels like I am missing a bunch of other stuff like QED or QCD...but I don't know if that applies. I don't know enough about it. There's other stuff that I am also forgetting. In order to create the system that you desire, you'd need an infinitely small observer directly in the perfect center of the sphere. You'd then need the inside of the sphere to be a perfect vacuum. Then your sphere would need to be made of "immortal matter": matter that is not subject to decay, annihilation, sublimation, and so forth. Then you'd need to introduce the light from an infinitely small source so it does not interfere with the reflection. So you'd have to create a different universe with a different set of physics to accomplish your thought experiment.

Originally posted by dadudemon
It feels like I am missing a bunch of other stuff like QED or QCD...but I don't know if that applies.

QED probably forbids perfect mirrors for white light.

Feynman discusses reflectivity of glass in QED and mentions off hand that it varies with wavelength as well as with the thickness of the glass.

Originally posted by Darth Jello
Ditto, the light would dissipate, unless the mirrored surface somehow amplified the light in which case the sphere would almost instantly be destroyed via feedback and anyone inside would be vaporized.
The person inside would absorb it.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
If you turn off the flashlight wouldnt light still be trapped in there for eternity? It has no where to escape..

It remains me of a prison.

Weirdo.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Emagine a large perfect sphear shapped mirror with the reflective side facing in, there are no cracks or any flaws period.


1. What would you see if you were inside?? (you have a flash light)



Sort of like this pic but the reflective side is facing in and you are inside
http://www.paulcheksblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Sphere-of-Mirror-by-Po-Shu-Wang.jpg

'Emagine' this, the cognitive ability test you took, you failed! Retard!

Originally posted by The Alpha Male
'Emagine' this, the cognitive ability test you took, you failed! Retard!

I lol'd...BUT!


English is not his first language so I will be gentler to people like him. I can't speak his native language, at all...so I can't expect his English to be perfect: just enough to understand him.

Originally posted by dadudemon
I lol'd...BUT!


English is not his first language so I will be gentler to people like him. I can't speak his native language, at all...so I can't expect his English to be perfect: just enough to understand him.

CBC's first language is Retardese, am I right?

Originally posted by dadudemon
I lol'd...BUT!


English is not his first language so I will be gentler to people like him. I can't speak his native language, at all...so I can't expect his English to be perfect: just enough to understand him.
It is his first language...

...he's from Florida lolz.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
It is his first language...

...he's from Florida lolz.

But it's not.

John McCain was born in Panama but his first language is definitely not Spanish.

We should ask Colossus-Big C what his first language is.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Is there any material thats 100% reflective?

Reflectinium.

Originally posted by dadudemon
But it's not.

John McCain was born in Panama but his first language is definitely not Spanish.

We should ask Colossus-Big C what his first language is.
What makes you think CBC isn't American?

Because he isn't Russian.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
What makes you think CBC isn't American?

Because he isn't Russian.

To be honest, his "syntax" seems to not be American/British at times. I do not know how to explain it but my experiences allow me to make conclusions that are usually correct when it comes to language. I am not "magic": it's just experience from talking and writing to people from different language for 15 years.

Originally posted by dadudemon
To be honest, his "syntax" seems to not be American/British at times. I do not know how to explain it but my experiences allow me to make conclusions that are usually correct when it comes to language. I am not "magic": it's just experience from talking and writing to people from different language for 15 years.
Or he could be one of the many Americans who suffers from a poor education and just doesn't grasp the written word very well.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
Or he could be one of the many Americans who suffers from a poor education and just doesn't grasp the written word very well.

After re-reading his posts, I confused him for another poster. He wasn't the person I thought he was. This guy is just a bad speller and doesn't know where to place punctuation.

I would see jake gyllenhaal....ahaha inside joke

That's an interesting thought experiment. Maybe someone has already done this experiment before.

See, a mirror's ability to reflect doesn't simply depend on the wavelength of the light in relation to the construction of the mirror, but also the angle of approach. Assuming that you have a perfect vacuum inside of it.

So it would eventually die down to the invisible spectrum. The time it takes for that to happen of course depends on the size of the ball, the location of the light source, and the initial angle of approach, assuming we have a perfect vacuum and 100% reflective material---from an orthogonal angle of approach. If the beam of light is fired from the center of the sphere (focal point) then it will only bounce back and forth in a simple hour-glass shaped pattern. If fired anywhere else it would go in a determined trajectory around the focal point.

Originally posted by ADarksideJedi
It remains me of a prison.

Reminds me of Gantz.

Originally posted by Astner
See, a mirror's ability to reflect doesn't simply depend on the wavelength of the light in relation to the construction of the mirror, but also the angle of approach. Assuming that you have a perfect vacuum inside of it.

So it would eventually die down to the invisible spectrum. The time it takes for that to happen of course depends on the size of the ball, the location of the light source, and the initial angle of approach, assuming we have a perfect vacuum and 100% reflective material---from an orthogonal angle of approach. If the beam of light is fired from the center of the sphere (focal point) then it will only bounce back and forth in a simple hour-glass shaped pattern. If fired anywhere else it would go in a determined trajectory around the focal point. Well that's all fine and dandy, but how 'bout ya PROVE it.

Originally posted by Lord Lucien
Well that's all fine and dandy, but how 'bout ya PROVE it.
What exactly do you want me to prove?

A beam is rotational symmetric, and the angle of approach is the same as the angel of departure relative to the normal vector of the sphere. That should give you the basics of the understanding of its trajectory.

As for that the reflectivity relies on the angle of approach, it depends on that additional distance light has to travel as it's being reflected. You need to end at a whole wave length for 100% reflectivity.