SPHERES

Sphere

Sphere Facts Notice these interesting things: It is perfectly symmetrical It has no edges or vertices (corners) It is not a polyhedron All points on the surface are the same distance from the center And for reference: Surface Area = 4 × π × r2 Volume = (4/3) × π × r3	Glass Sphere. Balls and marbles are shaped like spheres.

Largest Volume for Smallest Surface Of all the shapes, a sphere has the smallest surface area for a volume. Or put another way it can contain the greatest volume for a fixed surface area. Example: if you blow up a balloon it naturally forms a sphere because it is trying to hold as much air as possible with as small a surface as possible. Press the Play button to see. In Nature The sphere appears in nature whenever a surface wants to be as small as possible. Examples include bubbles and water drops, can you think of more?

The Earth The Planet Earth, our home, is nearlya sphere, except that it is squashed a little at the poles.

It is a spheroid, which means it just misses out on being a sphere because it isn't perfect in one direction (in the Earth's case: North-South)

Other Cool Spheres