The Globe Table
Choose where you are and where someone you love is. The globe turns to show the shortest way between you, which is rarely the straight line a flat map suggests. Below it: how far apart your noons are, and how much a classroom map stretches each place.
Noon here means when the Sun is highest, which follows longitude. Clock time zones are drawn by countries and can differ by an hour or more. The stretch is for the Mercator projection most wall maps use.
At the table
- Before you look, each guess: which way does the shortest route go, over which ocean or which pole?
- Pick the two cities and check. Who was closer?
- Find the two places on a flat map, then on a globe or a ball. Which looks bigger on the flat map than it really is?
Children can try the same globe on GlobePals, where they predict before the globe turns.