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submitted 1 week ago by gedaliyah@lemmy.world to c/til@lemmy.world

Started an argument with my much smarter wife because she said North and South America are not two separate continents. She was right, because continents are only defined by convention.

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Yeah. People in the US learn about 7 continents at school. In France, we learn about the 5 continents.

[-] drolex@sopuli.xyz 17 points 1 week ago

N'importe quoi, y a la chocolatine du nord et la chocolatine du sud, ça fait 6, retourne à ton école pourrave à Paimpont (j'ai rien contre Paimpont, c'est très pimpant).

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

I hope that’s really the gibberish my browser’s translate function tells me it is

It’s very logical.

There’s north chocolatine (basically hillbilly way to say pain au chocolat) and south chocolatine, which according to the above commenter of extremely high IQ, means there as 6 continents instead of five.

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Maybe some of it is literal word for word translation vs accounting for grammatical differences but …

Anything, there's northern chocolate and southern chocolate, it's 6, go back to your school in Paimpont (I have nothing against Paimpont, it's very pimpant).

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[-] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 12 points 1 week ago

Paimpont est réputée pour son école de pompiers.

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[-] Dagnet@lemmy.world 52 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I remember many years ago I was playing WoW and the conversation in guild chat was about continents so I said that in my country America is a single continent. That moment an American in guild flipped the fuck out and got really mad at me even suggesting that his great country could be in the same continent as mine (Brazil) going as far as saying "that's so fucking dumb, next you will say Europe and Asia are the same continent?!" which is funny cause eurasia is a thing, what a dumbass.

[-] masterbaexunn@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago

Mexico is in North America, but try telling that the common trump supporting gringo.

[-] Branquinho@lemmy.eco.br 16 points 1 week ago

AFAIK, Cuba is on the North American tectonic plate as well...

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[-] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 1 week ago

Geology doesn't care about your feelings.

[-] sundrei@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 1 week ago
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[-] tobogganablaze@lemmus.org 49 points 1 week ago
[-] Alinor@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Personally a great fan of the CGP Grey videos. Continents in this case: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3uBcq1x7P34

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[-] SecretSauces@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago

There also isn't a strict definition of when a pond becomes a lake

[-] Iheartcheese@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

When your mom gets in it

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[-] Gladaed@feddit.org 29 points 1 week ago

There is a useful way to do it: By looking at Tectonic Plates and their boundaries.

[-] Denvil@lemmy.one 34 points 1 week ago

According to the image on Wikipedia depicting the plates, there would then be 17 continents, although some of those 17 would be entirely ocean, or only small islands

[-] Fermion@feddit.nl 17 points 1 week ago

Half of Japan would be North American? I didn't expect that.

[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 14 points 1 week ago

Lots of island chains are actually mountain chains partially hidden underwater. And mountain chains usually appear where two tectonic plates ram into one another, causing one of them to bunch up.

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[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

I’m really surprised this is the first time I’ve seen Africa as two continents. The Great Rift Valley is well known but I just hadn’t heard going the next logical step

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[-] SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago

And then India is no longer in Eurasia. Or you could say that Los Angeles is not in North America.

[-] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Los Angeles is not in North America

I don't see a problem with that.

Plus, by tectonic plates, isn't it America, since N/C/S America are on the same plate, right? (I don't trust my memory of school from decades ago).

[-] Gladaed@feddit.org 6 points 1 week ago

India is usually considered a subcontinent. West Coast is a geologic mess until resolved.

[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago

I mean, it useful to geologists. Not so much to economists or sociologists.

[-] teft@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

I try to explain this to people who don't believe south americans call themselves americans.

[-] jqubed@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago

This becomes even more confusing with the way people commonly talk in English versus Spanish. In English, residents of the United States of America typically refer to themselves as Americans, and in English “American” typically only refers to someone from the USA. In Spanish, it seems residents of the USA are typically called the equivalent of “United Stateser” and “American” refers more generally to someone from the continent, at least in some parts of the Spanish-speaking world. I once had an apparent native Spanish-speaker online argue that was the correct form in English as well and insisted that the official name of the country is United States (Estados Unidos), not United States of America (Estados Unidos de América), and that America never refers to the country in English. They didn’t appreciate when I asked why in international sporting events the Americans’ shirts always say USA and why the supporters chant “U-S-A” all the time.

Languages are weird. If you’re learning a different language and try to insist that the new language behave the same as your native language, you’re going to have a hard time.

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[-] Canadian_Cabinet@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 week ago

Yep. In Spain and Latin America, there is no separation between North and South. Its just one continent: América

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Most romance languages follow that. The 5 rings in the Olympics logo are meant to be continents.

[-] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 week ago

Antarctica is severely underrepresented in the Olympics. Not a single medal.

[-] __nobodynowhere@startrek.website 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The USA isn't the only America nor the only United States. Maybe when the government collapses we can come up with a better name.

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[-] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 9 points 1 week ago

Well, they're in South America

[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Right? Continent or not has nothing to do with it.

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[-] PanArab@lemm.ee 21 points 1 week ago

The borders between Europe and Asia are absolutely arbitrary and the border between Asia and Africa is the Suez Canal

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[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 16 points 1 week ago

You were right too, because continents are only defined by convention. And by the convention I was taught, there’s 3 Americas: South, Central, and North.

[-] nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 week ago

In elementary school we were taught that as well, then in middle school we were taught Central America is part of South America, but in high school we were taught Central America is part of North America.

[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 5 points 1 week ago

That’s not confusing at all.

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[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

there's also like 5 definitions of "species". Sometimes what seem like simple concepts are hard to pin down

[-] essell@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Not always, I'm simple and easy to pin down.

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

And New Zealand is its own continent! I like that definition

[-] deltapi@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

I'm not sure New Zealand is real. It's not on my maps.

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[-] JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Oceania is the best continent

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[-] Metostopholes@midwest.social 7 points 1 week ago

North and South America I can see either way, but splitting Europe and Asia is insane.

[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Eurasia and Oceania sure, quibble all you like that makes sense to me. But combining the Americas and pushing Africa in with Asia makes no sense to me.

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Same. I think having a tiny land bridge shouldn't be enough when the idea of a continent is to identify the largest masses of land separated by oceans, especially when disconnected land can still be a part of a contenent.

My list would be:

  • North America
  • South America
  • Eurasia
  • Africa
  • Oceania
  • Antarctica

I can see the combined Americas and Africa combined with Eurasia if the idea is land masses that separate oceans, but oceans are as arbitrary as continents so I don't think that is a useful definition.

[-] higgsboson@dubvee.org 4 points 1 week ago

Nobody tell her about trees, then.

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this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2024
303 points (95.2% liked)

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