# How do you make a paper globe? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 13, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-paper-globe/380193 "2006-11-13T04:19:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-paper-globe/380193/1 "2006-11-13T04:19:11Z")
Help! I am looking for a pattern of segments (pointy ovals all joined up) that you cut out and can fix top and bottom to make a ball, like a globe. I need it to teach a class tomorrow and no matter what I google I cannot get a simple outline to copy. I tried to make one myself and it came out crazy lopsided… Could anyone help me out here? Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-paper-globe/380193/2 "2006-11-13T04:34:26Z")
[Globe: Make your own](http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.8102) Has a downloadable template of your connected pointy ovals. Googling ‘globe projection template’ found it. ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-paper-globe/380193/3 "2006-11-13T10:11:51Z")
Thank you very much! I could NOT get the right combination of words to produce a template. I got lots of instructions for much more complicated balls but this is going to be a kindergarten class project. I appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-paper-globe/380193/4 "2006-11-13T15:44:34Z")
**H.B.** , you might take note that the template provided features a 16th century notion of the world that doesn’t match up with our current knowledge of the configuration of the world’s landmasses. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-paper-globe/380193/5 "2006-11-13T16:24:22Z")
[Here are a bunch more.](http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapProj/Normal/ProjInt/projInt.html) These have the current shapes, but are rather small. Still, you can save the image and put it in a document and print it. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-paper-globe/380193/6 "2006-11-13T16:30:22Z")
Alternatively, blow up a balloon and papier mache it. Then pop the balloon. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-paper-globe/380193/7 "2006-11-13T17:13:00Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] Alternatively, blow up a balloon and papier mache it. Then pop the balloon. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but most balloons aren’t even close to spherical when they’re blown up, and you’d have to time popping it fairly carefully so the papier-mache was sufficiently hard not to collapse, but not so much as to have stuck to the balloon firmly. If that makes any sense. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2006, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-paper-globe/380193/8 "2006-11-14T09:56:17Z")
If one is not **too** set on sphericity, the same website that **WhyNot** linked to in post #5 has downloadable images for [polyhedral pseudoglobes](http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapProj/Normal/ProjPoly/Foldout/foldout.html) that include tabs for gluing, and thus may be easier to construct than the “pointy oval” type. The [icosahedrons](http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapProj/Normal/ProjPoly/Foldout/Icosahedron/icosahedron.html) seem to be a good compromise between sphericity and (kitchen-table) manufacturability, and the high-resolution color images look good. I’m tempted to try to build the [“Gnomonic projection on an icosahedron, poles on faces, color-coded topography, original elevation data by USGS’s EROS Data Center”](http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapProj/Normal/ProjPoly/Foldout/Icosahedron/Files/icoGn_pof-lev.pdf) _(warning: PDF)_ myself.