continents

[downunder]

Originally Posted by 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).

above is true

[Insipiens]

Originally Posted by Black Jeebus

The only real definitive way would be to count up the UN delegates. Even then you're gonna be off cause there's a few that have no UN representation. The DPRK has full representation in the UN though.

Taiwan is not a member state of the United Nations so presumably it does not have a representative.

There are 191 member states. But that does not include Scotland or Wales so on your definition they are not countries. Despite what they may think!

[Black Jeebus]

No Scotland and Whales are not sovereign states anymore than England is. They are all part of the UK.

And earlier I was pointing (or trying to point out) that the cultural distinction between Europe and Asia do not make them seperate continents, and that the main reason they have always been thought of as seperate is because of those cultural distinctions. Mostly that though is a throwback to the age of European Imperialism. They (the Europeans) have always tried to make themselves seem more important anyway they can.

[noodle]

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.

so you consider asia and europe divided by the urals, but not north and south america by the andes? last i checked, the andes are 2x higher than the urals...

[sreckiki]

It's just interesting to see that the Europeans see the North and South America as one continent and in the same time, the Americans see Europ and Asia as one continent... Where does it come from? I wonder...

[Black Jeebus]

Well North and South America are connected by a very small isthmus, whereas Europe and Asia aren't even really divided. If you count a mountain range as dividing a continent then there's four American continents Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest America.