Mirrored Sphere - Physics Demonstrations - Mirrored Sphere | Physics Undergraduate Labs

Purpose

A polished spherical mirror produces virtual, upright, and distorted images. Students observe how the curved surface compresses a wide field of view and explore anamorphic projection — placing a pre-distorted drawing that appears correct when viewed in the sphere's reflection.

Gold mirrored sphere on a gray surface with a stuffed animal placed beside it; the sphere's reflection shows the room and objects distorted by the convex curvature

Gold mirrored sphere with a pre-distorted Rubik's cube drawing on white paper in front of it; the sphere's reflection shows the drawing as a correctly proportioned cube

Figure 1: The mirrored sphere produces virtual, upright, and distorted images. The wide field of view captured in the reflection shows how the convex surface compresses a large scene.

Figure 2: Anamorphic projection: the intentionally stretched drawing on the paper appears as a correctly proportioned Rubik's cube when viewed in the sphere's reflection.

Gazing Globe

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