Hi Burr, another example would be like if you wanted to build a big sphere in your back yard.

If you went to a contractor and asked them to build it, they might say something like: The lumber yard does not have any spheres, we have to build your sphere out of pieces of wood, how many pieces of wood would you like us to use?

The kind of "ideal sphere" design is itself not easy to build because there aren't any materials that match it exactly. You have to break it down using more commonly available materials like boards, sheet metal, etc...

- Michael