The telegraph message sent in the 20th century scene announce the driving of the Golden spike, connecting the trans-continental railroad
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In the Rennaissance scene, the page being inspected by Johannes Gutenberg is an exact replica of one of the pages from the original Gutenberg Bible, and the press in the scene is a working movable type press
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During the Greek scene, the actors are actually quoting a scene from Sophocles Oedepus Rex
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In the Egypt scene, the hyrogliphics on the wall are reproductions of actual writings, and the papyrus letter being held is a duplicate of an actual letter sent by a Pharoh to one of his agents
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If Spaceship Earth were a golf ball, the golfer would have to be 1.2 miles tall
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When the attraction first opened, imagineers miscalculated the stress forces placed on the attraction by ascending and decending the vehicles. This was fixed with a $.10 plastic spacer (go figure)
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The sphere is made of more than 11,000 triangles, created from an alloy called alukabond (a thermal poly-etholine core, bonded to aluminum), with 1 inch spacing between the panels, allowing them to expand and contract in the Florida heat, and to funnnel the rainfall to a drainage system that feeds the lagoon so water doesn't just run off and soak peolple underneath
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MIT was hired to test the wind loads on the sphere, to make sure that it wouldn't create a wind tunnel affect
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The sphere is suspended 18' off the ground
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The legs of the sphere are supported by pylons that are driven 120-185 feet into the ground
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The outside surface is 150,000 square feet , with a interior volume of 2,200,000 cubic feet
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When built, it was the world's first Geodesic Sphere, suspended completely from the ground by 3 points
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18 Stories tall (180'), weighs 16 million pounds, and made up of 11,000 triangles.
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Spaceship Earth is actually made up of 2 spheres. The outer sphere (which you see) around the inner sphere (which houses the attraction), leaving a gap of about 2 feet between the two.
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