Question

Greenland is a big island. The continent of Africa is much larger than Greenland. But, on some maps, Greenland and Africa appear to be almost the same size. Why?

Answer 1

Answer:

This is due to the distortions created by the  Mercator projections when modelling the earth.

Explanation:

Greenland is indeed smaller than African continents but still appears to be of almost the same size. As the continent of Greenland is located in the arctic circle and has an area of 2,166,086 kilometers square.  

And the African continent has an area of 30,370,000 kilometers square so it is bigger and larger than Greenland. Africa being a second-most populous country has a population of 1,225,080,510 persons and Greenland being the world's biggest ice mass next to Antartica has a population of  55,877 persons.

African coastline is about 26,000 kilometers long and that of Greenland is comparatively less. Also if you will see the size of African late its lot bigger spreading away from the continent as compared to the Greenland plate.

In Mercator projections that higher latitudes are more evenly spaced.

Answer 2

On many world maps, Greenland and Africa appear to be the same size. This happens because it's impossible to project the round Earth onto a flat map without distorting its proportions. In reality, Africa is 14 times bigger than Greenland.