Why does Greenland look huge on some maps?

Answer 1

Because it is huge - 836,109 square miles.

The UK is only about 94,500 square miles - so it's nearly 9 times as big!

Answer 2

Remember one thing: The world is sort of like a sphere. If you were to lay the surface of the wrold on a flat piece of paper it would look like a bunch of convex lenses lined up with the thick ends touching. This would give a map that is hard to read for regions close to the North and South Poles.

What cartographers do is approximate the shapes of countries through projections.

The most common projection is the Mercator projection, in which all areas of the globe are distorted to achieve a square grid map. In this projection type Greenland appears to be bigger than Brazil.

Don't get me wrong, Greenland is big. The biggest island on the planet, to be exact. But it is not bigger than Brazil.

Answer 3

It's called the Mercator Projection - used for displaying the world as a rectangle not a sphere.

The Mercator projection makes every degree of longitude the same length. This means that while at the equator a degree of longitude is about 400 miles, in reality a degree near the north pole might only be a few metres.

As you get closer to either pole the distance covered by each degree is diminished but the Mercator projection stretches them to be the same as those at the equator. This makes Greenland and the north of Canada and Russia look enormous.

Answer 4

Those maps are garbage. They try to make a round world flat and end up distorting everything at the poles. If you see a National Geographic map you can get a more accurate representation because it is displayed as a large oval that could be folded into a globe shape. Don't trust the proportions on any flat/square map that attempts to represent the world. The garbage one is called the mercator projection.

Answer 5

First Greenland is enormous.
Second its location in the planet is on the north pole, so when it is flattened its dimensions will alter. That is the main reason why it will look bigger in some maps, while in others it will look smaller.
The best thing is to look at it in a globe and see its proportions 'au naturelle' when it is not flattened. Then the comparison will be more realistic.

Answer 6

Because you can't make a ball flat and rectangular without distorting portions. For accurate depictions of greenland look at a globe.

Answer 7

Simple , Check the map SCALE . If you calculate the areas on all the maps it still comes to the same figure .

Answer 8

Its all about trying to lay out a sphere flat, it will be distorted what ever you do. Different people have tried it in different ways, meaning that various places become larger or smaller than they should appear.

Answer 9

It's HUGE. Somebody knocked you in the head? Don't ask ridiculous questions like that.

Answer 10

It is huge - A country with so much land but very inhospitable weather and terrain - so little population