continents

[dunastor]

Originally Posted by geezer

Hail, Pangea!

You've been around for a looong time haven't ya?...

[felicote]

Some people don't consider Antartica to be a continent, mainly because there are no countries there.

[Iwant2bafencer]

The answer is 42.

[scrapinpeg]

Originally Posted by Cavatione

The continents are five:
-Europe
-Asia
-Africa
-America
-Oceania

You must be insane. A continent by definition is a major land mass, whereas Oceania is a zillion itty bitty land masses. And you left out a couple.

1) Eurasia
2) Antarctica
3) Africa
4) North America
5) South America
6) Australia

[geezer]

"...and I say to myself, what a wonderful world."

[lochinvar]

Originally Posted by felicote

Some people don't consider Antartica to be a continent, mainly because there are no countries there.

?? I was unaware that being populated was a condition for being a continent. As scrapinpeg says, the definition is a large (mostly) autonomous landmass. Countries don't play into it, as far as I can see...

[Inquartata]

This question can be answered only when we know how many planets there are in the universe with land masses...

[HillBilly]

Originally Posted by Iwant2bafencer

The answer is 42.

"How many streets must a man walk down?..."

[Zelda]

Australia - smallest continent, largest Island.
There are 7 continents....North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Antartica and Africa. I have been to all of them except South America and Antartica (aiming to change that in the next couple of years).
the Oxford Dictionary defines a continent as "any of the worlds continous expanses of land". "The continent" is generally accepted as being Europe if you live in the British Isles (which comprises England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales).

[Cavatione]

Originally Posted by scrapinpeg

You must be insane. A continent by definition is a major land mass, whereas Oceania is a zillion itty bitty land masses. And you left out a couple.

1) Eurasia
2) Antarctica
3) Africa
4) North America
5) South America
6) Australia

First, Asia and Europe are not united, but rather divided by the Urals.
Second, the "Americas" are one continent. Panama has been made only recently.
Oceania means Australia and New Zealand plus all those little islands.
What kind of geography does people study nowadays?
Antartica? Why not Atlantis then...

[Zelda]

Australia and NZ have a slight allergy to being bunched together. I have always considered N and S America as seperate continents. However if you consider them as one there are still 7 as Oceania then comes into the equation. according to http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/env99/env109.htm the number is variable, madscience say the defn is too variable http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives...5712.Sh.r.html.

[Soldier]

Originally Posted by Cavatione

First, Asia and Europe are not united, but rather divided by the Urals.
Second, the "Americas" are one continent. Panama has been made only recently.

And that tiny narrow little strip of land unites those two landmasses more than all the land around the Urals? If we're going by mountains, why not have Northwest America and Northeast America, divided by the Rockies? Yes, there's a bit of land in there, but I'd say it's a pretty good dividing place.

Originally Posted by Cavatione

Oceania means Australia and New Zealand plus all those little islands.
What kind of geography does people study nowadays?
Antartica? Why not Atlantis then...

For Oceania, refer back to the definition of a continent being a large landmass...and Antartica happens to be dry land still, above water - as opposed to "Atlantis", last I checked.

[Schiavona]

Originally Posted by Cavatione

Second, the "Americas" are one continent. Panama has been made only recently.

Following the above logic then Africa and Asia are one continent

[telkanuru]

"Recently" being a relative term.

[lochinvar]

Originally Posted by telkanuru

"Recently" being a relative term.

He means the canal, I think...in which he is correct--it was, in fact, dug only recently.

If we insist that the Urals are enough of a mountain range to serve as the division between continents, then Italy must be a separate continent (the Alps) and India a separate continent, also (the Himalayas and Hindu Kush). Either of those two mountain ranges dwarf the Urals as a barrier.

Sorry, Cavatione, you can't sell me that Eurasia is not a continuous landmass. The only reason Europe was defined as a continent in the first place is because the Europeans didn't know how large Asia was until the 17th Century, by which time the concept of Europe as a continent separate from Asia had been long-established.

A visitor from outer space would not hesitate to define Europe and Asia as being a single continent.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Originally Posted by felicote

I feel that the thread has gone in the wrong direction. The point of it was to see in what parts of the world children are taught that there are 5 or 7 continents. I was born in Ecuador and I was taught that there were 5 Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and America. When I came to the US I was taught that there were seven.
I have heard that in some parts of Europe they also consider there to be 5 continents.

So what happened to Antarctica in your geography lessons?

In Sweden, I was taught: N America, S America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica. Grand total: 7.

Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[dunastor]

In the Netherlands, we use the term "werelddelen" ("world-parts") to describe the continents in one of the meanings used in this thread. Apart from that we also use the word "continent". We are thusly able to make a distinction between the continent Eurasia, consisting of the "world-parts" Europe and Asia.

Besides, the distinction between Europe and Asia has been made since ancient Greece, so I don't see the point of negating that distinction..


0.02

[Black Jeebus]

But the distinction relies mostly on the divergent people as opposed to the actual physical land masses.

[dunastor]

Originally Posted by Black Jeebus

But the distinction relies mostly on the divergent people as opposed to the actual physical land masses.

In that case, do the Middle America countries belong to the North American continent or the Southern American one...?

Middle America being from Mexico to Panama etc.

[sabreur]

Originally Posted by Iwant2bafencer

The answer is 42.

Wrong question....

MR