Earth Kugel

This 8'8.7" diameter sphere is known as the Mary Morton Parsons Earth Kugel. Kugel is German for “ball” or “sphere.” One foot on the Kugel scales to approximately 1,000 miles on planet Earth.

It's made from 300 million-year-old granite quarried from Le Sidobre, the largest granite plateau in Europe. This same granite paves the famous walkways of the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France.

Kugel fountains like this one take advantage of the incompressibility of water and a ball/socket design so you can move over 57,000 pounds with just your hand. Give it a spin!

Much like a vehicle can hydroplane over a thin film of water on a roadway after a storm, pressurized water supports the Kugel from underneath, allowing it to move in all directions with little effort. The water isn't all that forceful, though—your faucet at home comes out with more pressure than the water supporting this 29-ton sphere of rock!