Tim Brock, age 9, of Santa Maria, California, for his question:

Why isn't Greenland a continent?

A continent must be a great big chunk of land and Greenland is not big enough to qualify. True, it looks mighty big on a world map. In fact, it looks as big as Australia    and we are told that Australia is a continent. This seems unfair  ¬but really it isn't. Actually the world map is not fair because it makes Greenland look much bigger than it really is. This is because the map is flat. A globe gives a truer picture because it shows how the wide world gets narrower towards the North Pole.

The true size of a land is its area. Australia is the smallest continent, but it is more than three times bigger than Greenland. Actually, Greenland is only about five times bigger than California, which is just part of North America. The continent of North America is more than ten times bigger than little Greenland.