Talk:Hand with Reflecting Sphere

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Netherlands

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Ambiguity of geometry[edit]

Moving the following comment by anonymous from article to here:

Escher will of course appear reflected in the globe, hence the left/right inversion. The reflected subject is not really holding the sphere horizontally either, the spherical mirror simply distorts the angles so that it might look that way to a casual observer. Last, the reflections of the environment are actually more realistic than you might think - most of the reflected objects are either behind the observer's view or some distance to its side, not within sight. This is a less realistic drawing than other reflective sphere drawings by Escher, but it does not bend reality more than marginally. Don't take my word for this, grab a Christmas ornament and a camera and give it a try yourself. There is nothing extremely strange or ambiguous about the geometry in this composition, even though the drawing of course has many possible and more or less profound interpretations.

--GrafZahl 12:47, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm another anon to the one that included the above text, but I'd have to agree with the text that was removed and disagree with the current text. Both are uncited commentary however. A little thought concerning the geometry of reflection should convince the reader that the drawing is pretty accurate. Accordingly I've removed the current text to here:

As it is an Escher picture, it cannot be taken at face value. Problems with the picture include: the preliminary hand is holding the globe vertically, while the figure in the picture (presumably Escher) is holding his globe horizontally. Also, the bookshelf, which stretches into the interior perspective, does not appear in the 'external' space around the globe - nothing does.

the hand is more or less vertical, and such a hand would reflect as shown
indeed, the sphere does reflect objects that are beyond the vertical plane (into the paper, in front of Escher) and indeed it does, namely the wall that Escher is holding the sphere in front of. He's holding it close to or touching the wall under the bookcase.

Some references I found afterwards:

panorama calculated from the painting
shadows, reflections & atmosphere

-213.219.161.27 00:53, 29 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Me ha parecido bastante incompleto, ya que no hay mas que algo de su historia, y nada sobre su contexto, ni materiales. Y ésto en un artículo son unas de las bases que más importantes considero. 88.16.48.21 (talk) 17:20, 2 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

^ TALK IN ENGLISH, STUPID ASSH0L3. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 187.57.187.251 (talk) 17:16, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]