> That was my first thought, but then I wondered how to generate a set of
> jigsaw pieces that tile the sphere. It's nowhere near as obvious as you
> might think.
>
> The reference image seems to use six different shapes, and it's not
> obvious to me how to generate those shapes so that they fit correctly.
>
> --
> Mike Williams
> Gentleman of Leisure

To create the pieces, you first need to subdivide your sphere into sections.
 It appears that what they have done is divide into 8 rows (or latitudes), 4
top and 4 bottom.  The very top and bottom ones are left as circles, the
second row from the top and bottom are divided by a specific number of
columns or longitudes (looks like 8) then the middle rows are divided into
twice that.  These sections can be used to define the nominal tile
dimensions, then you just need to add/subtract your interlocking bits
accordingly.

The are alternate ways of tiling the sphere as well.  Another option would
be to project a tiled cube onto the sphere surface which would give all the
tiles as 4-sided shapes.

-tgq

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