Gore (segment)

Four flat gores of cloth and a three-dimensional skirt constructed from such gores.

A gore is a segment of a three-dimensional shape fabricated from a two-dimensional material. The term was originally restricted to triangular shapes, but is now extended to any simple shape that by repeated use can construct a three-dimensional shape.

Examples

• Spherical globes of the Earth and Celestial sphere were first mass-produced by Johannes Schöner using a process of printing map details on 12 paper gores that were cut out then pasted to a sphere. This process is still often used. The gores are conveniently made to each have a width of 30 degrees of longitude matching the principal meridians from the South Pole and North Pole to the Equator.
• Parachutes and hot air balloons are made from gores of lightweight material. The gores are cut from flat material, and stitched together to create various shapes.
• Corners in round duct-work can be created by welding or fixing gores of metal sheet to form a bend.
• Some designers use the stretched grid method to design gores that are cut out of weather-resistant fabric and then stitched together to form fabric structures.

The gores of Waldseemüller's 1507 globe of the world, the first to use the name "America"