I was wondering if you have any information on a problem my son is working on. He is in 6th grade, and his teacher wants him to make a sphere out of a piece of 6" x 8 !/2" paper. There can't be any paper removed. There are cuts allowed as long as the paper is still in one piece. Tape can also be used. Maybe you know of a web site with this information on it, or maybe you
know the answer...

Thanks for the interesting web page...

Donna Endress

Thank you for the kind words.

To answer your question, there is of course no way to make a sphere out of a piece of paper. It's important to find out how lax your son's teacher plans to be, or in fact what the fellow had in mind. Topologically speaking a cube is equivalent to a sphere, and you can easily create a cube out of a piece of 6" x 8 1/2" paper. (Just think of it as a 3x4 rectangle. Make 2" cuts from the long sides towards the center. Fold the middle 1x4 strip in a "square" or "cubic" shape; let the dangling flaps overlap.)

I would contact the teacher to find out his/her implicit restrictions on the possible shapes.

All the best,
Alexander Bogomolny

Use some old news paper cut it in strips and use some flour and some water but first cover your work space with news paper.