Too much thinking result in this....

[n2stuff]

This reminds me of a story about a guy who put solar cells in a box with a light bulb.
He thought it would stay lit once he closed the lid.
Perpetual motion or is it Schrödinger's Cat.

 

[Wos]

What you propose is of course, not possible.
However, assuming you do have a one-way mirror that is 100% reflective on the inside, and at least partially transparent on the outside, you probably would not be able to store energy in it. You would not see it either, it would appear as an absence of light.

Such a device, if used in an area where any ambient light exists, would then proceed to absorb all of the photons which hit it. If the ball contained air, it would eventually become so ridiculously hot from all the heating of the air from the light that it would melt. If the ball contained a 100% vacuum (also not particularly possible). You COULD use it to store energy, but it would likely cause an incredibly large explosion once you broke it open, if you allowed it to collect light for any lengthy period of time. Assuming you built this in outer-space, which is not a 100% vacuum (although quite close), you would reach a critical point at which one of several things could occur.
1. Fusion of any particles that get trapped in the ball.
2. Anti matter is created.
3. The fabric of the universe within that ball is changed in some incomprehensible way, possibly resulting in a black hole or a worm hole.

The ball would likely melt before any of those things happened though.

Back to your original question, if the ball ONLY had a laser shone on it, it was 100% reflective no the inside and transparent on the outside, it would appear completely dark (although that wouldn't matter, because no other light would be going into it, so you wouldn't know the difference). You would simply see your laser beam stop where the ball was. If you shone the laser on it for too long, any of the aforementioned things would happen. In order for it to store energy, it would have to consist of a nearly total or total vacuum. When you broke it open, difuse laser radiation would shine in the direction of where the structure first failed (the beam structure would be eliminated by the curved surfaces it would be reflecting upon).

However, everything about this situation is pretty much impossible, because in order for it to be 100% reflective on the inside, it must also be 100% reflective on the outside.

Maybe i've been thinking too much too!

AAlasers

Hahah cheers man! :gj:

 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

Assuming theoretical 100% reflection and vacuum, I think the ball would crack and break apart as light was added due to the forces placed on the inside of the sphere from the reflecting light.

 

[joeyss]

See this is why tritium tubes were invented..they just give off light for 20 years.

 

[ApexProxy]

A tritium tube in a box with the light sphere of doom... absorbing light for 20+ years from one tiny source.

If this sphere were possible and it didn't tear a hole in space and time or explode from being pushed apart by photons, one could create the worlds most powerful bomb simply by sending sphere to orbit the sun attached to a satellite with a massive mirror system to gather as much light into the sphere as possible and then have it return

Hmm, if its 100% reflective to "light" does this mean only visible light or what about Ultraviolet and Infrared light? If it could gather any wavelength of light then it would be an exponentially more powerful device.

Wow, the sphere would have to have a limit simply because photons would take up space and once that limit were reached if it were truely perfect and didn't explode due to pressures I think it would create a black hole or neutron star. That is assuming that once the sphere were full, the surface would remain permeable to light from the outside so photons could still cram in. Problem with that is as the structure filled, I think the outer surface would begin requiring more energy for the photons to be able to push in. That is unless the surface of the sphere, being thicker than a photon, would have a one way effect all the way through. But then you might end up with photons being bashed into by photons within the surface and having the material become saturated with trapped photons that cant go in or out. Thus eventually, photons wouldn't be able to enter the photon saturated surface of the sphere and it would be come perfectly reflective.

My brain is officially on "wtf" mode now. Time to go grab a beer and watch SouthPark...

 

[joeyss]

^ That's some mind**** right there...could you imagine though?

 

[Cel]

Thinking "what is something impossible is possible" is Ok, but it won't get you anything... except maybe confusion and overloading your imagination... :crackup:

 

[joeyss]

Alright here's a new twist....let's say that "light ball" is traveling through a curved space time that makes it cover more distance than light does....what happens to the light?

 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

Ur face.

JK, but I don't really follow what your saying.

 

[Flaminpyro]

I think you were on the throne way too long :crackup:

 

[ApexProxy]

If the sphere were to be accelerated past light speed, I am not even sure what would happen to it, not that anyone actually knows lol

 

[Flaminpyro]

Yea I know, if it is accelerated past the speed of light it would start time traveling :na:

If the sphere were to be accelerated past light speed, I am not even sure what would happen to it, not that anyone actually knows lol

 

[joeyss]

Alcubierre drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now what we have a laser shinning out the window....

 

[Eudaimonium]

Alcubierre drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now what we have a laser shinning out the window....

Assuming you're travelling near lighspeed, without space before and after you being distorted by warp/alcubierre driver;

You would normally see the laser beam expanding outwards, as if you're not moving at all.

Outside observer would see both you and light travelling at same speed (light travelling along side with you).

That's assuming a LOT of things though. If you actually were travelling at lightspeed, you'd become completely invisible to any outside observes due to "blue shifting". So we assume observer can still see you somehow with special equipement, and that special equipement is fast enough to register both you and light passing by you.

If you're distoring the space/time before and behind you, and shine a laser in front... I dunno, tits?
F*ck knows what happens then. That's so deeply theoretical, we cannot even guess with any accountable accuracy what would happen.

 

[ApexProxy]

Percisely. I was just too lazy to type all that out so I stuck with who knows XD

 

[Tyriel]

However, everything about this situation is pretty much impossible, because in order for it to be 100% reflective on the inside, it must also be 100% reflective on the outside.

I agree with everything you said except for this single sentence. Just a few years ago nearly every physicist in the world and certainly every textbook on optics stated it was impossible to make light flow around an object, however the discovery of meta-materials changed this. Now is it really such a big stretch of the imagination to think that perhaps it might be possible to make a meta-material that allows light to travel through it in one direction?

I admit it may not be possible in my lifetime but it's exciting to think of what might be possible within the next 100 years.