EPCOT: Part 5 - Spaceship Earth the Ride

One of our favorite rides in EPCOT is inside the giant golf ball, Spaceship Earth.  A history of communication from the cave men up to modern interactive computers.  Slow, relaxing, interesting, informative, and a great way to stretch the back a little (on the way back down) after walking around all day! :)

EPCOT: Part 1 - Spaceship Earth

The first sight upon entering EPCOT - the ubiquitous giant golf ball aka Spaceship Earth.

ABC Wednesday: "S" is for Spaceship Earth

"S" is for Spaceship Earth - the instantly recognizable "giant golf ball" that is the icon of EPCOT at Walt Disney World.  

This 18-story high geodesic sphere is a pentakis dodecahedron, with each of the 60 isosceles triangle faces divided into 16 smaller equilateral triangles (with a bit of fudging to make it rounder). Each of those 960 flat panels is sub-divided into four triangles, each of which is divided into three isosceles triangles to form each point. In theory, there are 11,520 total isosceles triangles forming 3840 points. In reality, some of those triangles are partially or fully nonexistent due to supports and doors; there are actually only 11,324 of them, with 954 partial or full flat panels.

The cladding was designed so that when it rains, no water pours off the sides onto the ground. (All water is "absorbed" through one inch gaps in the facets and is collected in a gutter system - and finally channeled into the World Showcase Lagoon.)

Construction took 26 months and 40,800 labor hours to build.

You can see more about Spaceship Earth here.

You can see more ABC Wednesday here.