The Globe reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Globe

A globe is a three-dimensional spheroid representation of a place, usually of a planet, star or moon. Globes are the only geographical representation of Earth that has no distortion. Spheres such as the Earth are mapped onto a flat surface using a map projection with an inherent degree of distortion. These projections can either enforce angle preservation or area preservation.

The Earth is obviously the most popular planet represented but globes of the Sun, the Moon and other celestial objects have been made, including fictional oness.

The earliest globe, called the "Nürnberg Terrestrial Globe", was made during the years 1490-1492 by German mapmaker Martin Behaim.

A globe is usually mounted at an an angle on bearings. In addition to making it easy to use this mounting also represents the angle of the planet in relation to its sun and the spin of the planet. This makes it easy to visualize how days and seasons change.

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