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What would happen if the earth was made up of some transparent, see-through material, and it was hollow? Nothing else is different. Would we able to see the other side of the earth, or would it be too far away? How would sunlight affect the Earth? Would it be brighter?

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    $\begingroup$ This seems more like a pure physics question, and a rather broad one at that. Maybe try asking just the first part on Physics. $\endgroup$
    – overactor
    Feb 18, 2016 at 5:52
  • $\begingroup$ It depends on how hollow , if it is too hollow , it make very well collapse on its self , also , nothing it perfectly clear , so the other side may look fairly dim and blurry, and almost certainly upside down , due to the curvature of the world. $\endgroup$
    – user15036
    Feb 18, 2016 at 6:47
  • $\begingroup$ Not to mention that it would have no magnetosphere and be to thin to support life $\endgroup$
    – user15036
    Feb 18, 2016 at 6:50
  • $\begingroup$ Is there a specific result you're trying to achieve with this? That might be a better way to present a worldbuilding question. $\endgroup$
    – MichaelS
    Feb 18, 2016 at 6:51
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    $\begingroup$ I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because as mentioned in the comments this could be better answered at physics. It's mainly a problem with optics, rayleigh-scattering ect. $\endgroup$
    – JFBM
    Feb 18, 2016 at 8:48

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The answers to this are pretty much clear cut physics based.

  • Would we be able to see the other side? Of course. Your description calls for a thin transparent material, and empty space. Neither of those block light, so you could see through. Now you wouldn't be able to see much detail. The Earth is 12,742 km in diameter. That's about a 20th of the way to the moon, so think about what you can see on the moon. You can see just about 20x that well, no more.
  • The sunlight would be generally unaffected, other than the obvious issue that you no longer have nighttime because the sunlight can go through the earth. A thin material is unlikely to have any lensing effects, though if you chose your transparent material to have an enormous index of refraction, it could do something.
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