Antarctica is a real continent and it is the biggest continent.
Greenland is as big +- as Africa,
People want's Antarctica to be frozen because it make the Ground to disappear and the ground is a truthful being.
Google is not claiming anything. It's all in the map projection used.
Gall-Peters Projection (left) and Mercator Projection (right) Since the Earth is a Globe, it is not possible to make a flat map covering a large area without considerable distortion.
The Mercator map is commonly used because it preserves
local shapes and directions, but as can easily seen, it grossly exaggerates sizes (areas) as the poles are approached. In fact, the poles themselves can never appear on the "Equatorial" Mercator's projecton map.
On the other hand, the Gall-Peters Projection preserves the areas in correct proportion, but severely distorts the shapes as the poles are approached. You cannot preserve all these features at once on a flat map.
There are hundreds of different projections, all with their own strengths and weaknesses.
By showing only a limited area the shapes and sizes can be reasonably well shown, as on these three views of the regions mentioned.
Google Earth, Africa | | Google Earth, Greenland | | Google Earth, Antarctica |
Here is Africa, Greenland and Antarctica on Google Earth with as close as I could get to a 25,000 km "eye altitude" in each case. Where's the problem?
Now, Google Earth shows a part of the globe as it would look from the stated "eye altitude",
on the other hand, Google Maps uses what is essentially a Mercator Projection, often called a "web Mercator" because some simplifications to speed up an interactive display.
Mercator is used here to keep local shapes looking right, and to eneblr smooth scrolling right down to street level.
So Google has nothing to do with your "problem". They just take the data (effectively in Latitude, Longitude and Elevation) and then convert that to display as a Mercator Projection.
So, don't "blame" Google. The Mercator has been used for centuries because it makes navigation easier.
Yes, it looks a little different, but it's a very early Mercator Projection of the Globe.