What would you see if...

[willem82]

Imagine you are inside a large sphere. There are no seams on the inside surface. The inside surface is a mirror. If you have a light source, what would you see? Would you cast a shadow, a reflection, or would you just see white?

I am no scientist, and I cannot imagine what you would see in this scenario. I think it would make a difference as to your position inside the sphere. Makes my brain hurt.

[Ealdwita]

I'm aware of several theoretical answers to that question....The one I personally prefer is....

"It depends how big the sphere is and where you are placed in it. Let us assume that the sphere is quite large say about the size of a room and you are near to one of the walls if you looked towards the wall close to you you would see a slightly enlarged image of yourself a bit like looking in a magnifying shaving mirror. If then you turned round and looked at the other wall you would see an upside down image of yourself some distance away (actually just a bit closer to you than twice the diameter of the sphere) you would also see this upside down image also if you turned back to face the wall and looked into the distance behind your image. There would be a continuing regression of these images but like with flat mirrors they would become distorted and fade.

Now lets assume you move slowly towards the centre of the sphere these normal and upside down images towards and away from the wall would both gradually get larger and larger and more distorted until they became a blur. Just like when you move too far away from a magnifying shaving mirror."