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Thursday, July 20, 2006

New Question: How many continents are there.

Americans can answer this time:

In the USA we are taught that there are 7 continents:
North America
South America
Europe
Asia
Africa
Australia
Antartica

How many were you taught?

26 comments:

Beatriz Guillen said...

In El Salvador, we are taught there are 6 continents:
- America
- Europe
- Africa
- Asia
- Oceania
- Antartica

One questions to the americans... where does Central America fit? North or South America?

T-rent said...

I look at continents as more geological than cultural.

So Central America is in North America, its a sub-continent like India.

Pierre said...

India - the same seven

But we're forming a movement to get continental status since we've already got an ocean named after us. :P

Memz said...

Egypt 5 - all the listed except Aussie land and Antartica

dimitris said...

what's with all the geography questions?

greece seems to be on par with el salvador with this. 6 continents:

- America
- Europe
- Africa
- Asia
- Oceania
- Antartica

for some weird reason though, people think Australia is the continent and not Oceania. in that case, where would i.e. New Zealand fit?

:-)

Tom Gara said...

Australia is the continent. New Zealand is an island in Oceania.

In Australia I was taught 7. This whole North/South America thing is interesting, because they are pretty much exactly as connected as Asia and Africa - even down to the fact that we cut canals through the thinnest bits and technically "seperated" the continents.....

Tom Gara said...

The definitive answer to all of this can, of course, be found at wikipedia

Liia said...

In Estonia I think we are taught that there are 6 continents:
Eurasia, Africa, North America, South America, Antartica, Australia

and parts of the world (6) are: Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Antartica, Australia and Oceania

Thomas said...

I think, I was taught in school that Antarctica is not a continent because its only (frozen) water.

Certainly, Australia is not a continent but a part of Oceania. If I remember correctly, I was taught that the name of the continent is "Australia & Oceania".

The border between Europe and Asia is the Ural mountains in Russia.

And America is definitely one continent with two subcontinents.

South Asia is a subcontinent because there is a significant geographical and geological border between it and the rest of Asia: the Himalayas.

Carissa )i( said...

Antarctica is a continent. At least that's what I learned in school. Check out the wikipedia entry on Antarctica (and I've also learned that Arctica is the one only made up of frozen water):

"Antarctica is the southernmost continent and encompasses the South Pole. Antarctica is surrounded by the Southern Ocean and divided by the Transantarctic Mountains. On average, it is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent and has the highest average elevation of all the continents.[1] At 14 million km², Antarctica is the third-smallest continent after Europe and Oceania and 98% of it is covered in ice. Because there is little precipitation, except at the coasts, the interior of the continent is technically the largest desert in the world."

However, if you check for Arctica, you don't really get anything. So, I checked for the North Pole, and got this:

"The Geographic North Pole, also known as True North, commonly called the North Pole, lies in the Arctic Ocean. Unlike its antipodes the South Pole, it lies not on a polar continent (Antarctica means anti-, i.e. opposite, Arctis, the northern polar region), nor is it part of any (sub)continent or island, so there is no land, just (almost) permanently frozen waters."

Carissa )i( said...

Also, if we want to talk about the number of continents, it all depends on your definition of "continent". Therefore the different existing models.

siz said...

In Indonesia: 5 (Asia, Africa, America, Europe, Australia). But I can remember some of my teachers taught me that Antartica is also a continent.

nida said...

Seven :) Although I'd like to second Pierre's suggestion!

mikey said...

why are we all talking about how different we all are when we are all really just the same

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Pangea_animation_03.gif

my html skill surrenders... please click to get the joke

Soad said...

Here in Egypt (and I disagree with Assem for a bit) I was taught that there are 6 continents:
North America
South America
Europe
Africa
Asia (including Oceania)
Antartica
well that's as far as I remember from school!

Celine said...

In Singapore, my textbooks said

- North America
- South America
- Africa
- Europe
- Asia
- Australia

and continents were defined as ' a large land mass suitable for living ( i think this was what I learnt when I was 9 or 10 )

Superluli said...

In my school it was 7. same as the US.
I was in a german expat school - o german curricula.
i don't know about egypt's curricula

Westy said...

7.
Australia
Europe
North America
South America
Asia
Africa
Antartica

it wasn't till I went overseas did I hear of this thing: Oceania... I was always raised on: "Australia is the largest island and the smallest continent".

My security, pride and identity was shaken two fold when I was told: a) Oceania is the continent, and b) Greenland is the largest island because Australia is void due to its continental status: talk about consistancy.

Chris the Brit said...

In the UK it was kinda 5+1 - Asia, Australia, Europe, America and Africa, and then Antarctica cause it was so huge, but not really because no-one lived there.

Nacho said...

In Argentina we learn:
- America
- Europe
- Africa
- Asia
- Oceania
- Antartica

We are the world...
we are the children...

Neoka said...

In Canada we learn 6, skeptical of the 7th...:

North America
South America
Europe
Asia
Africa
Oceana

7th being Antartica, but it is proven that there is some land there...

A King said...

I'm surprised no one posted about the song that we (or at least I) learned in the U.S.

To the tune of Frère Jaques
There are seven
There are seven
continents
continents
Europe, Asia, Africa
North and South America
Australia
Antarctica

Pranay Da Spyder said...

In India: 7 continents. India is technically a sub-continent, a.k.a 'The Indian Subcontinent'

Antarctica is a continent as it is land (covered by ice).

There are also 12 major tectonic plates on earth - 3 of them are too small to consider as separate continents - Phillipines, Caribbean and Arabia;while two other are in the oceans with no significant land mass.

That leaves 7. Thus the seven continents, which is the largely accurate general assumption :-)

Blogs are back in India btw - an Indian govt order earlier this week had made ISPs block all blog access! Madness!

Alfredo said...

In Wisconsin two - the bar you are in and everywhere else. When you leave the bar it seems like you are walking on water.

Kevy Nathalie said...

As a venezuelan with an Eropean education, I have to say that we were taught that there are 5 continents:
-America
-Asia
-Africa
-Europe
-Oceania

I am surprised that almost anyone agreed with that.

AIESECly,

Kevy Nathalie

Walter said...

por dios! no puede ser q estén dicutiendo al respecto! son unos brutos!
los continentes, acá y en la china, fueron son y será los siguientes:
- America (las 3 juntas)
- Europa
- Africa
- Asia
- Oceanía
- Antartida.

Pero por favor, esto es algo básico q lo ven los chicos en el colegio primario!