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How many continents are there?

LostAngeles

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Inspired by an SC thread, I present your "You should have learned this in third grade, dummy" thread:

Ok, North America and South America are seperate because they're on different tectonic plates.

So what's the deal with Europe and Asia? Do we really have six continents (N. America, S. America, Africa, Australia, Antartica, Eurasia) or the standard seven?
 
LostAngeles said:
Inspired by an SC thread, I present your "You should have learned this in third grade, dummy" thread:

Ok, North America and South America are seperate because they're on different tectonic plates.

So what's the deal with Europe and Asia? Do we really have six continents (N. America, S. America, Africa, Australia, Antartica, Eurasia) or the standard seven?
Click to expand...

You're thinking, which is good. We have seven continents, BY DEFINITION. South America is a separate continent because it is populate by beaners who speak Spanish (we won't mention the francophones in The Enemy to the North, much like Ross Perot's crazy aunt in the attic).

One question I've never gotten a good answer to is what continent is New Zealand part of?

And what was the biggest island in the world before Australia was discovered?
 
Re: Re: How many continents are there?

TeaBag420 said:


You're thinking, which is good. We have seven continents, BY DEFINITION. South America is a separate continent because it is populate by beaners who speak Spanish (we won't mention the francophones in The Enemy to the North, much like Ross Perot's crazy aunt in the attic).
Click to expand...

Nor should we mention the francophiles in Haiti.

Nor the Brazilians who speak Portuguese.

:p
 
Re: Re: How many continents are there?

TeaBag420 said:
One question I've never gotten a good answer to is what continent is New Zealand part of?
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It is not a part of any continent. It is an island.

And what was the biggest island in the world before Australia was discovered?
Click to expand...

Ummmmm.... Australia is a continent, too. The largest island is Greenland.
 
This topic, oddly enough, got me think about the "Seven Seas".
Recently, I saw one of the seas listed as Oceania. Now my memories of school are pretty dim, but I could swear I've never heard that name before.
 
Re: Re: How many continents are there?

TeaBag420 said:
And what was the biggest island in the world before Australia was discovered?
Click to expand...
Everything is an island if you think about it...
 
Dividing by plates doesn't make much sense in landmass terms, but if you do, there're seven major plates (although the Pacific Plate is not continental).

plates.gif
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: How many continents are there?

Lothian said:
Europe and Asia are different continents.

Australia is a country. Australasia is the continent.

The biggest island before Australia was discovered was still Australia.
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But it is classed as an Island Continent, I think. It is big by itself, by not nearly as big as the other continents.
 
Re: Re: Re: How many continents are there?

Yahweh said:

quote:
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Originally posted by TeaBag420
And what was the biggest island in the world before Australia was discovered?
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Everything is an island if you think about it...
Click to expand...
If you say Australia is an island because it's completely surrounded by water and not connected to any other continent, then Antarctica is also an island, and it's bigger than Australia.
 
If we’re talking continuous sea boundary, Africa, Europe, and Asia are all one body, as are N. and S. America. I think Australia and Antarctica are too small to be counted continents, so there's two. And a bunch of unaffiliated islands.
 
Michael Redman said:
If we’re talking continuous sea boundary, Africa, Europe, and Asia are all one body, as are N. and S. America. I think Australia and Antarctica are too small to be counted continents, so there's two. And a bunch of unaffiliated islands.
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Is this a real question? The words "continent" and "island" have been handed down to us from ancient Greece, when they noticed that there were a lot of small islands, and then two really big land masses (Europe and Asia) that weren't surrounded by water (within range of their explorations) and didn't join to each other (again, within range of their explorations). The Romans then noticed that there was a third large land mass (Africa) that didn't touch the others (within range of their explorations). Then later the Romans, among others, explored further and found Suez and the north shore of the Black Sea.

The word "continent" simply doesn't mean "a sufficiently large body of land surrounded by water." It means one of the accepted large bodies of land, which in most of the English speaking world is a list of seven bodies. You can't reason about the meanings of words as though they were defined logically, since, put simply, they aren't.
 
Re: Re: Re: How many continents are there?

Thumper said:


It is not a part of any continent. It is an island.



Ummmmm.... Australia is a continent, too. The largest island is Greenland.
Click to expand...

So your position is that Australia is not an island?
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: How many continents are there?

BPSCG said:
If you say Australia is an island because it's completely surrounded by water and not connected to any other continent, then Antarctica is also an island, and it's bigger than Australia. [/B]
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Well played!!
 
Matabiri said:
Dividing by plates doesn't make much sense in landmass terms, but if you do, there're seven major plates (although the Pacific Plate is not continental).
Click to expand...

OK, I only heard the plate thing recently but I keep thinking I did hear it in school.

*ahem*
I don't believe they ever actually explained why N. Am. and S. Am. were two continents and I believe my personal reasoning was because Panama was so small.:hit:
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: How many continents are there?

TeaBag420 said:
Well played!!
Click to expand...
Thank you. Even a blind pig finds the trough now and then :D
 
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