Visiting friends recently and their kids had this fun blow up globe that serves as a beach ball and a geography primer. The photo opportunity was too sweet to miss as it reminded me of the famous sculpture of Atlas.
“In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan condemned to hold up the celestial heavens for eternity after the Titanomachy. Atlas also plays a role in the myths of two of the greatest Greek heroes: Heracles (the Roman equivalent being Hercules) and Perseus.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_(mythology)
After we finished playing with the globe beach ball we sat down with a big old fashioned paper atlas and tried to work out how and why the globe got stretched and squashed when it was printed on paper – projections for 5 and 8 year olds (and a 68 year old who still struggles with this stuff).
