How Many Continents Are There?

[philippe]

5: America, Eurasia, Africa, Antartica and Australia

 

[~Corsair#01~]

There are eight.

North America, South America, Africa, Antarctica, Europe, Asia, India, Australasia.

That is, there are eight practical continents- large landmasses separated from one other by prominent geological features.
Europe is separated from Asia by the Ural mountains and vast steppes while India is separated by the Himalayas. The others are self explanatory.

 

[aronnax]

Then Arabia is its own continent following what you say

 

[~Corsair#01~]

Then Arabia is its own continent following what you say

Too small.

It could be argued that the Middle East west of Persia + Africa north of the Sahara is a continent in human terms, but I don't think it makes sense geographically.

 

[bhsup]

There are seven. Any who say differently are just trying to stir up trouble and should be punished severely. If seven was good enough to be taught to my parents and myself, it is good enough for the people today. Yep yep.

 

[Tee Kay]

Five continents:

America, Eurasia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica

 

[Swedishguy]

Australia is just an island. I prefer Oceania.

 

[philippe]

There are seven. Any who say differently are just trying to stir up trouble and should be punished severely. If seven was good enough to be taught to my parents and myself, it is good enough for the people today. Yep yep.

what do you have against south-America?

i learned five here, I guess poeple need to see difference between a continent, a large island and a part of the world.

 

[Lillefix]

In norway, and probably rest of scandinavia. We differentiate between world-part(verdensdel) and continent.

Continents: Africa, North America, South America, Australia, Antarctica,Eurasia,
World part: Africa, North America, South America, Oceania, Europe, Asia and possibly Antarctica.

 

[Truronian]

There are seven continents. Its just convention, as "continent" has no real geographical meaning.

 

[Tycho Brahe]

7 is such a nice number.

Even if euroasia makes more sense as only one continent.

 

[Mirc]

And what are the italic, balkan, iberian, scandinavian, crimea and jutland peninsulas? Capes?

Peninsulas.

The fact that they are peninsulas of a bigger peninsula doesn't make them anything else than peninsulas.

 

[Arwon]

Australia is just an island. I prefer Oceania.

Technically, Australia-New Guinea is more accurate, but saying Oceania is a continent is pretty inaccurate.

 

[LightFang]

All you folks who say there are not seven (or even six, I'll accept you guys too): do you tell this to other people? Do they think you're kidding about it? Do they think it's odd?

 

[Alpine Trooper]

As you can clearly see there are 3 continents.

 

[jeps]

actually, there seems to be 4 continents, as evidenced by the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships

OR 5, as evidenced by the 5 olympic rings.

 

[Den Valdron]

Australia is big enough to count.

Particularly if we include Antarctica, which as I've noted, is about 2/3rds ice.

What about imaginary continents? Atlantis, Terre Australe, Hyperborea, Lemuria and Mu?

Or how about actual sunken continents? Zealandia and the Kerguelen Plateau (admittedly they're pretty small).

 

[JohnRM]

Taught seven, don't care.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

6 obviously, Europe is a politicall area not a geographicall one.

 

[Newbunkle]

All you folks who say there are not seven (or even six, I'll accept you guys too): do you tell this to other people? Do they think you're kidding about it? Do they think it's odd?

But... according to North Korea there are only five!

You can see in this article on Kimjongilia (not Kimjongphilia):

Kimjongilia in Full Bloom Worldwide
Pyongyang, February 13 (KCNA) -- Now Kimjongilia, the immortal flower, is in full bloom on the five continents of the world, catching the admiration of humankind with its charm.
@Kimjongilia was brought into the world in February Juche 77 (1988) by a Japanese horticulturist who made painstaking efforts to convey the august name of the peerlessly great man praised by all peoples down through generations by representing it in the most beautiful and rare flower in the world.
@The news of its birth delighted progressives all over the world and it spread rapidly to many countries in a few years.
@Entering the 1990s, Kimjongilia associations were formed and Kimjongilia greenhouses were built in various countries so that the dissemination of the immortal flower assumed a broader scale around the world in an organized manner.
@The formation of the North European Kimjongilia Association in Sweden in 1995 was followed by the appearance of the Mongolian Kimjongilia Association in 1997, the Japanese Kimjongilia Fanciers Society in 1998 and the American Kimilsungia-Kimjongilia Association in the United States in 2004.
@In China Kimjongilia greenhouses made their appearance in such cities as Dandong, Shenyang and Dalian and bases were laid out for the cultivation and dissemination of tens of thousands of Kimjongilia plants.
@Heated fervor for the dissemination of the immortal flower swept the world with the successful cultivation of Kimjongilia in French and German botanical gardens.
@The work for developing its cultivating technique got into full stride. In this course, Chinese and German botanists undertook joint researches with technicians of the DPRK for developing the technique, thus opening up a prospect for introducing ultra-modern bioengineering into the growth of the flower. @Meanwhile, brisk activities were launched by horticultural organizations and big horticultural enterprises in various countries to pitch into large-scale joint ventures for tissue culture and joint undertakings including the construction of greenhouses in order to fully meet the international demand for Kimjongilia.
@Over the last 20 years visitors from more than 100 countries took away over 96,000 flowers and granular roots of Kimjongilia and went about busily cultivating and propagating them. Today the immortal flower is in bloom in 70-odd countries.
@Kimjongilia was awarded special prize and gold medal, the top "Grand" prix as well as diploma, gold prize and first prize at flower exhibitions and horticultural expositions such as the 12th World Flower Exhibition, the 1999 Kunming International Horticultural Exposition and the International Horticultural Exposition, 2006, Shenyang of China.
@Officially registered at the the International Society for Horticultural Science as new species of the begonia family, Kimjongilia, the flower of the sun, became to shine ever brighter in the world floricultural circles.
@The immortal flower will come into fuller blossom across the world amid the deepest respect and reverence of humankind for Kim Jong Il. @