How many continents are there?

[Perfection]

Now remember when you were a wee one and teacher said there were seven continents?

Well, do you really think that is the true number?

Should Europe and Asia Be seperate continents?

What about india it's got the world's largest mountains seperating it from asia?

Greenland Austrailia, are those continents?

How many continents are there really?

 

[amadeus]

There's enough.

 

[zjl56]

If you really want to know who would probably want to know th number of continental plates.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I go by the "Risk" board values.

 

[King Alexander]

Ok, we know how many continents there are, but you want to separate continents by the size of large countries(like India)? With that logic, Russia and China should be continents.

If Europe and Asia would be accepted as one continent, it would be a super-continent!

 

[Perfection]

If you really want to know who would probably want to know th number of continental plates.

There are seven major tectonic plates plus 8 other good sized ones. However I should note that all plates do not match the classic continents.

Here's a map http://geology.er.usgs.gov/eastern/plates.html

 

[Steph]

In geography courses, we are teached there are 6 continents: America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Antartica.
India is considered a subcontinent.

 

[Perfection]

Really Steph, I find it quite odd that America is taught as a single continent yet Europe and Asia are distinct.

 

[Turner]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It's a few miles of connection at the Panama border, and Hundreds of miles running through Russia. I don't remember, is the Ural Mountains the main dividing line in the north?

 

[Hygro]

North and South America are not one continent, Steph.

 

[sourboy]

Only 1/3 of the voters got it right...and only another 1/5 or so were close to the answer (and probably have valid reason to argue the point) - the rest....*sigh*

 

[Perfection]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It's a few miles of connection at the Panama border, and Hundreds of miles running through Russia. I don't remember, is the Ural Mountains the main dividing line in the north?

That is correct

 

[King Alexander]

Then, how many continents should America have? 2 or 3?

 

[Perfection]

North and South America reside on different plates and have very little connection with one another. I would argue they should be different continents noting that a similar methodolgy is used to seperate Africa from Asia (If we do not consider Arabia a seperate continent)

As per Greenland, I am unsure on it's level of geologic independance but I speculate that it is not that great

 

[Mapache]

Pretty balanced opinion. At least 2 for each choice.

Voted 6.

 

[WickedSmurf]

I checked all the options, which would make me right and wrong at the same time.

Re Greenland, it is an island, not a continent.

 

[Perfection]

Re Greenland, it is an island, not a continent.

What do you base that distinction on? Why Greenland not Australia?

 

[WickedSmurf]

Greenland, located in the North Atlantic Ocean, is the world's largest island (Australia is a continent).

Quoted from here

 

[Steph]

My dictionnary definition say it is a vast land mass that can be crossed without crossing the sea.

So by this definition, America is one continent, and Europe-Asia-Africa are one other.

But this is the "physical geographical" definition, then you are a more "cultural", or "historical" definition, and by that the one I have listed are the ones which are commonly used. Although they are wrong : making Oceania a continent is a bit strange, as it is not a land mass

 

[Perfection]

Basing your distinction on what Wiki says doesn't give me much info about why other then because that's what some reference said. Remember I'm going against the reference books in many of my examples, so let's not assume that thier reasonings must be correct.

However that article does have something more interesting

"If the Greenland ice cap were to completely melt away, Greenland would most likely be an archipelago instead of an island-continent like Australia."