How many continents are there?

[ponderingturtle]

This is interesting:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_the_Olympic_rings_represent



In other words: They only count the continents with, you know, actual people on them....

But lump them together how they see it. It really should only be four. Europe, asia, africa and the colonies.

 

[aggle-rithm]

I said this actually made no sense because from a physical standpoint they should just be one very large continent called Eurasia. I mean North and South America were not even joined until very recently in geologic time and presently are moving so they will separate again.

Wait, weren't they sliced in two about a hundred years ago?

Wikipedia turned out to be rather useless on this matter. It seems there is no concrete finite criteria for what is and isn't a continent.

It gets worse: They're also on a "planet", which is also not well-defined.

 

[Beerina]

What's with the inordinate number of As? Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, North and South America?

 

[Dave Rogers]

What's with the inordinate number of As? Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, North and South America?

It's the simplest way to prove Europe isn't a continent. Real continents start and finish with an A.

Dave

 

[Cuddles]

What's with the inordinate number of As? Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, North and South America?

They were going to call it "Aurope", but they didn't want people to think it was populated solely by Geordies.

 

[Travis]

This is interesting:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_the_Olympic_rings_represent



In other words: They only count the continents with, you know, actual people on them....

So the discrimination against the Nazi-Alien hybrids in Antarctica continues.

And things are going to get really real when the robots rise up and demand representation in the games.

 

[NoahFence]

Ha! Last oympics I had this same argument with a foreigner. He said the five circles represent the five (habitable) continents.

I was taught there are seven and I stand by that.

North America
South America
Africa
Asia
Europe
Antarctica
Australia

That's what I was taught.

Oh, and Quebec.

 

[Little 10 Toes]

Anyone remember if the Arctic was counted as a continent?

 

[NoahFence]

I was taught that the Arctic is part of North America

 

[JoeMorgue]

Anyone remember if the Arctic was counted as a continent?

It's an iceshelf, there's no landmass.

You could maybe argue Baffin Island being an Artic subcontinent, but that's probably a stretch.

 

[quarky]

The Panama canal caused a new continent.

 

[JoeMorgue]

No more so then a large river does.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Anyone remember if the Arctic was counted as a continent?

Strictly speaking it is an ocean.

 

[Damien Evans]

I enjoyed this.

It's wrong about Antarctica though. the only reason Antarctica is like that is because of the huge amounts of ice pushing it down.

 

[Damien Evans]

Anyone remember if the Arctic was counted as a continent?

Why would an ocean be counted as a continent?

 

[Baloney]

Ha! Last oympics I had this same argument with a foreigner. He said the five circles represent the five (habitable) continents.

I was taught there are seven and I stand by that.

Sadly, the guy who created the Olympic ring symbol (Pierre De Coubertin) said that was the idea behind his creation. Good at art and design doesn't necessarily mean good at geography.

(ETA: At least, Amurcan geography -- which, as everyone knows, is the only correct one.)

From Wikipedia page:

The Olympic flag ... has a white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red ... This design is symbolic ; it represents the five inhabited continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colors are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time. (1931)

 

[Dave Rogers]

No more so then a large river does.

Not so, because a river has a source. It doesn't change the connectivity of the land around it.

Dave

 

[Correa Neto]

Continents can not be defined by plate tectonics, since a given continent may be composed by more than one plate. In doubt? Check Eurasia.

Current artificial channels can not be used as criteria to separate continents for at least two reasons:
1. If there's a bridge or any other structure between bot sides, they are still linked.
2. There's still plenty of continental crust underneath the channel.

From geologic and geographic POVs, I would say we have four continents Africa-Eurasia, Americas, Australia and Antarctica. Separations between Europe and Asia and Asia and Africa, or between the Americas, IMHO, seems more like a cultural issue.

 

[shadron]

From a plate tectonics point of view, the concept of continents make about as much cogent sense as constellations do in the heavens. It's a useful generalization, but a difference without a distinction. Just look at the difference a few meters of sea level causes.

There's just one continent, Pangaea/Rhodinia/Gondwanaland; all the rest is just details.

 

[Travis]

Ur feels ignored.