• slacktoid@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    It is? I learnt north and south were separate. So I guess what makes a continent a continent? Also what would the 3 subcontinents be? North, central, south? (Guesses wildly)

    • bleistift2@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      Everyone learns different definitions based on their education system’s world view, leading to a number of continents somewhere between 3 and 20. It turns out that nature doesn’t care for humans’ desire to put everything into neat, well-defined little boxes.

      • elephantium@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        20?!

        My own view is 4: Antarctica, Australia, America, Afro-eurasia. I’m not sure how you’d get to 3, unless you disqualified Australia.

        I’ve also heard 7: Antarctica, Australia, split North + South America, split Africa + Europe + Asia.

        I suppose you could add a few – I’ve heard the phrase “subcontinent of India”, so that could be an 8th continent. Then maybe Greenland for 9. Beyond that, though? IDK what would even make sense.

        BRB, I have to go search for expansive continent definitions.