# What would you see, from the center of a mirrored sphere? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483 "2003-07-18T22:27:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/1 "2003-07-18T22:27:07Z")
Suppose you were floating at the exact center of a perfect sphere whose inner surface was mirrored. And suppose there was enough ambient light to see. What would you see, and how would this change as you move (as different parts of you were at the exact center)? And how long could you keep your sanity, if any? ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/2 "2003-07-18T22:58:45Z")
What would be the source of the light? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/3 "2003-07-18T23:02:10Z")
One of those helmets with a flashlight on the top! ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/4 "2003-07-18T23:05:39Z")
Interesting question… Here’s an image I found of a lightbulb inside one of those spheres: [http://www.skytopia.com/project/light/msphere.jpg](http://www.skytopia.com/project/light/msphere.jpg) It’s from this page: [http://www.skytopia.com/project/light/light.html#9](http://www.skytopia.com/project/light/light.html#9) , which goes on to describe how the sphere exploded because of all the continuously reflected light from the bulb. Google image search has a few more pictures: [http://images.google.com/images?q=inside+mirrored+sphere](http://images.google.com/images?q=inside+mirrored+sphere) I wonder if there are any animated ones… maybe a VRML world that lets you actually move inside one…? Would be cool 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/5 "2003-07-18T23:05:47Z")
Surprisingly, this has been a common question 'round here. I’m expecting a few links to old threads to pop up here toot sweet. If you were alone in a dark sphere, you would see blackness. Even if you managed to trap some light in with you, the walls of the sphere and/or you would absorb it in short order. If you brought in a flashlight or a candle or something else, I think the sphere would flood with light to the point where there’d be nothing but light to see. ---
**Author:** ![bbeaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@bbeaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbeaty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/6 "2003-07-20T06:57:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\*If you brought in a flashlight or a candle or something else, I think the sphere would flood with light to the point where there’d be nothing but light to see. \*\* Light from a flashlight would bounce around until it hit your body, so I’d expect that any light source at all would light you up. Rays extended backwards out of your eyes would bounce around until they hit your body, so I’d expect that you’d see colored clothing, hair, skin, etc., in every direction you looked. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/7 "2003-07-20T11:51:29Z")
And what would you see if you had one eye open, and that eyeball was in the exact center of the sphere? ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/8 "2003-07-20T12:37:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bbeaty \* > \*\*Rays extended backwards out of your eyes … \*\* Huh? 😕 Julie ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/9 "2003-07-20T18:04:46Z")
I think bbeaty was just talking about tracing out the path that light would take if shot out of your eyes. After a certain amount of bouncing, it’ll just hit your clothes, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/10 "2003-07-20T18:39:50Z")
I asked this same question a couple of years ago here, and one of the resident experts in ray-tracing software tried it out. For the most part, its just a mishmash - and its no where near as brightly lit as you might think. Your body being in the center blocks a lot of the reflection paths and darkens things considerably. Whta you can see is a reflection of yourself upside down and distorted. There are smeared reflections around and above that and a bright spot from the lamp. I’ve got the pictures around here somewhere, if you’d like to see them. Just say the word, and I’ll send them to the address in your profile. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/11 "2003-07-20T18:41:00Z")
So, are there lots of Spider Robinson fans on this board, or what? ---
**Author:** ![bbeaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@bbeaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbeaty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/12 "2003-07-20T19:21:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by panache45 \* > \*\*And what would you see if you had one eye open, and that eyeball was in the exact center of the sphere? \*\* As your head approached the center, you’d see a real-image of your own head approaching you. As your eyeball approached the right spot, you’d see the image of your face grow large, and the pupil of that eye would expand until everything was black. Essentially you’d see a huge and infinitely blurry image of your own eye’s retina. ---
**Author:** ![bbeaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@bbeaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbeaty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/13 "2003-07-20T19:24:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mort Furd \* > \*\*So, are there lots of Spider Robinson fans on this board, or what? \*\* Yeah, but why do you ask? I don’t remember anything in his stories about being in the center of a silver sphere. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/14 "2003-07-20T19:28:27Z")
In one of his books he mentioned this idea, and that most people he asked this question would think about ti for a while and then change the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreaming_of_Maria_Callas)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-see-from-the-center-of-a-mirrored-sphere/189483/15 "2003-07-20T19:40:55Z")
Gene Wolfe, in his four-volume work The Book of the New Sun, speculated that being in such a structure (with a light at the very center of it) would result in fauna of mirrors (one of Jorge Luis Borges’s fantastical inventions). His explanation, while obviously false, is charming in its Lewis Caroll-esque twisting of logic. A shame I don’t have the volume here with me on vacation. Perhaps other fans of tBotNS can post the paragraph. UnuMondo