> It is surprising that a lot of educated folks don't know about this. I always run into folks who think Greenland is the biggest island.

If it's the only projection you've ever seen - and globes aren't all that common - it's a reasonable misconception.

Kind of makes you wonder what other projections we're carrying around in our heads.

Well, speaking for myself, definitely not the Futamura projections. Way too high a level of abstraction to remember.

Greenland @839,999 square miles is the biggest island. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001783.html

Unless your talking about Australia which is ~3.5x a big. (2,969,907 sq miles)

I'm actually talking about all of the Africa-Eurasia super-continent.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_by_area Greenland is the biggest island.

> even though arguments can be made whether it is technically a continent, or merely part of a larger continent also called Australia

A technicality. While people thinking Greenland is bigger than Australia is not, which is the point I was trying to get across.

Don't worry manojlds, I'm sure the Pluto people will back you up and demote Australia.

I often wonder if it will matter in a couple of years. If we actually get to the point where walls are displays, then I would expect most schools will have a globe projected on the wall instead of a map. How long until we start with 3D animations instead of 2D drawings?

some definitions are arbitrary, for some people America is one continent, for some there are two, it's human-based, whatever is established in a culture, not math.

This is just a matter of semantics and word choice? Why isn't Eurasia (or Afro-Eurasia before the Suez canal) the largest island? Why not Greenland?

I'm a bit surprised the other way around. Greenland is bigger than I thought when I move it over Europe. And Iceland too.

Greenland is the biggest island, by a large factor.

Is Australia not an island?

It's a continent. Otherwise, we may as well call North America an island.

Well, since you bring it up, Australia isn't connected to another continent by land like North America is (as are Europe, Africa, and Asia). You'd have to say "the Americas" are an island, or "Afro-Eurasia"

You people are silly. If Australia is an island, then Antarctica wins. 'Nuff said.

ANTARCTICA 5,400,000 sq mi AUSTRALIA 2,969,900 sq mi GREENLAND 836,330 sq mi

...I never said it wasn't? I was just objecting to calling North America an island.

He was referring to the fact that Antarctica isn't connected to any other continent either.

I know, and I never said it was--hence my confusion at being called silly for my post (which was purely objecting to calling North America an island, since it IS connected by land).

What about just the eastern USA, then? It is fully split by rivers and lakes to the north and west, and oceans to the east and south...

How? Isn't it connected to South America?

If we want to be pedantic about whether or not the Panama Canal turns North America into an island or not, we can change the argument, and ask whether or not the Americas are an island.

Modulo the Panama canal.

What about the two non-swinging bridges across the Panama Canal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Bridge,_Panama) -- soon to be three? If the man-made separation counts, the man-made connection should too.

It's not man-made land though.

Greenland is the biggest island. Australia is a continent.

There isn't really a single universally accepted list of continents. Some count Australia as continent, some count it as part of Oceania. And some define the continent Australia as the country Australia plus all those islands that would otherwise be Oceania.

Actually Australia is a dwarf continentoid.