The physical book, as well as the class spell lists, list this as an Abjuration spell now, not Evocation

Nothing—not physical objects, energy, or other spell effects—can pass through the barrier, in or out.

Does this also block sound and light?

Up to dm's interpretation, for my players I would say it doesn't block 'passive' light/sound. Any from a spell would be blocked though

We got into a heated discussion at our table, person was pushed off a cliff that was 200 feet high, mage quickly cast this on the falling player. The sphere still plunged the 200 feet - our argument was shouldn't the person inside the sphere still suffer damage once the sphere impacted the ground because of inertia. Other's argued that nothing can harm anything inside the sphere. Thoughts?

"Nothing, not ... energy... can pass through the barrier" This would include kinetic energy, so the creature or object inside would not take falling damage. I'd also argue that falling damage is a "source outside the sphere" which the creature is also immune to.

Now that this is an abjuration spell, i can use it for clockwork soul!!  Heightened spell resilient sphere!

I think there are plenty of arguments for and against. Energy is not allowed to pass the barrier directly, but seemingly it is possible to manipulate the sphere itself in some ways. Moving the sphere would otherwise be impossible. External energy or effects can't damage what's inside of it, but internal can. At first I thought the creature or object inside would just smash against the barrier due to its inertia and receive falling damage whenever the sphere comes to a halt at the bottom of the cliff.

However, I've reconsidered and I'd argue falling due to gravity is just following spacetime without an external force opposing it. Whatever stops the fall provides the external force stopping the sphere. The sphere would likely dissipate this energy, it's magic, its meant to break physical laws. The movement might not even provide full sensory feedback to the creature, perhaps it should roll for motion sickness ;)

I also considered gravity might not affect the sphere's contents, but I feel this would open a Pandora's box of issues and headaches. Not to forget the abuse potential! A spell like catapult might not be able to target the sphere, but someone could perhaps put some sort of net around the sphere and have a familiar holding on to that.

10 giants could throw boulders at the sphere and the person inside would be unharmed.  I would argue that would be greater than the force of hitting the ground from a great height.

40d10+70 vs 20d6 (max fall damage no matter how far) or around a 60' fall in Gygaxian physics.

> 10 giants could throw boulders at the sphere and the person inside would be unharmed.  I would argue that would be greater than the force of hitting the ground from a great height

The boulders from outside would not harm the person inside, I agree.

The caster rolls to the edge of a cliff, and the weightless sphere wants to hover, but the caster's body is affected by gravity and pulls him and the sphere down.  The caster's body continues to push the sphere, but is ok as the sphere is falling at the same speed.  This is basically the egg drop experiment if you just taped the egg to a hard plastic sphere that can withstand the fall.

Upon reaching terminal velocity, the sphere encounters the earth, but takes no damage from it and comes to a complete stop.  The caster's body wants to continue to push the sphere at ~160mph however, the invulnerable sphere is now suddenly immovable in that direction and the caster has to come to a sudden stop against the inside of the sphere's shell.  (the caster has velocity, the sphere itself is now immobile)

In real world physics as written, the caster takes full falling damage (you can do this with an egg, as I mentioned above-- tell us how high you could get before the egg breaks) from the inside of the sphere.  However, this is magic and whatever makes your game more fun should be the results (IMO).  I would make a caster make a DC 20 to DC 25 Arcana check to know how it works, as this seems like an edge case that is probably not "well" documented.  The player should probably test this out themselves on a small drop :-) 

Edit: note - someone mentioned "kinetic energy" wouldn't pass through the shell, but note that the stationary ground has no kinetic energy to pass upward.  The falling sphere creates the impact to the ground (external), just like the falling body creates the impact on the shell (inside the shell).