How to Make a Sphere Out of Paper
A sphere is a perfectly round object like a soccer or tennis ball. You can make paper spheres as a table decoration or as homemade Christmas ornaments to give as gifts. Varying sizes of paper spheres can also work well as part of a science project about the Platonic solids; this particular sphere is made up of twenty individual triangles and is sometimes called an icosahedron. You can make a paper sphere from any type of stiff paper or cardboard, but construction paper works best as it is easy to cut and fold.
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Instructions
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1
Draw an equilateral triangle with 2-inch sides on the construction paper with the compass. Use a protractor to ensure the angles are each 60 degrees.
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2
Place the pointed tip of the compass in the exact center of the triangle. Place the pencil end of the compass at one of the triangle's corners. Draw a circle around the outside edge of the triangle, so that the triangle is circumscribed within the circle.
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3
Fold the circle's edges up around the triangle so that you have three flaps.
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4
Lay out 10 circles in a row. Each triangle should alternate direction (up, down, up, down).
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5
Hot glue the triangles together at the adjacent edges to make a ring.
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6
Lay five triangles together to make a circular shape. The tips should all be pointing together in the same place.
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7
Hot glue the adjacent edges together.
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8
Repeat Steps 6 and 7 to make one more circle of five triangles.
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9
Hot glue one circle on top of the ring of triangles to make the top of the sphere. The adjacent edges should be glued together.
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10
Repeat Step 9 for the bottom of the sphere.
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Tips & Warnings
Increase or decrease the size of your triangles to make larger or smaller spheres.
If you want to use your sphere as a decoration, make the pencil lines on the inside of the folds.
