Why is there so much blue on a globe?

Have you ever spun a globe and felt it whirl under your fingers? Round and round it goes, like a big painted ball. Spin it slowly, and the colors roll past like waves. And look how much of it is blue!

Blue here, blue there, blue nearly everywhere you turn it. Why is there so much blue on a globe? Let's find out together.

A globe is a model, which means a small copy of something big. This model is a copy of our whole Earth. It shows our big Earth small enough to sit on a table. You can hold the whole world in your two hands.

The people who make globes paint each part of Earth in its own color. They paint the land green and brown. They paint the water blue, because seas look blue from high up in space.

Most of the blue on a globe shows the oceans. Now, what do you think covers more of our Earth, land or water?

Water covers much more! The oceans are bigger than all the land put together. The land pokes up like islands in a big blue bath.

The globe makers want their model to look like the real Earth. That means they need lots and lots of blue paint. All that blue shows how big the oceans really are. A model with less blue would not match our Earth.

Our word today was model. A globe is a model of Earth. It looks blue because oceans cover most of our Earth.

Sleep well, little explorer, and dream of wide blue seas.