Donna Christopher, age 9, of San Diego, Ca ., for her question:

Why is Greenland bigger on a map than on a globe?

The earth, of course, is really a round globe. A map gives us a flat picture of the land and sea areas on the round globe. But actually, it is not a very true picture. For the surface of a round ball does not open out flat. Most world maps show the surface of the globe as if it were eplit,down one side. The top and bottom, the north and south poles, are then stretched out wide until they are equal with the equator.

This means that we get a true picture of the face of the earth near the equator. Further north and south, the picture is stretched sideways. And Greenland is very far north   on a world map it is stretched very wide. Compared with Africa, which is near the equator, it looks far bigger than it should. A globe gives us a true picture of Greenland  and here it looks much smaller compared with the rest of the world.