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submitted 1 month 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 11 points 1 month 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 15 points 1 month 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.

[-] drolex@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 month ago

commenter of extremely high IQ

WTF did you just call me?? Imma shank you

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month 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).

[-] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 5 points 1 month ago

Paimpont est réputée pour son école de pompiers.

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[-] Dagnet@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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 21 points 1 month ago

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

[-] Branquinho@lemmy.eco.br 9 points 1 month ago

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

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[-] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I remember when central America was a thing.

Edit: Apparently even considering the existence of Central America Mexico is still North America

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[-] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 1 month ago

Geology doesn't care about your feelings.

[-] sundrei@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 month ago
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[-] PanArab@lemm.ee 21 points 1 month ago

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

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 5 points 1 month ago

It's not entirely arbitrary, it's just based on racism.

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[-] SecretSauces@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

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

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

When your mom gets in it

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[-] tobogganablaze@lemmus.org 15 points 1 month ago
[-] Alinor@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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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[-] Gladaed@feddit.org 14 points 1 month ago

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

[-] Denvil@lemmy.one 23 points 1 month 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 10 points 1 month ago

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

[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month 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 4 points 1 month 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

[-] hansolo@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

The Red Sea is actually just another rift valley along the same edge of the plate. It just filled in with water first.

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[-] SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

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

[-] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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 4 points 1 month ago

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

[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 9 points 1 month ago

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

[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

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

[-] essell@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

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

[-] laurelraven@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 month ago

Regardless of which definition you go with, someone saying North and South America are one continent but Europe and Asia are two separate continents are at the very least being inconsistent

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[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

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

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

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

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[-] teft@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

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

[-] jqubed@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month 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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[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago

There's two definitions in my language. One for land mass continent (eurasia) and the other is more of a geopolitical continent if that makes sense (europe, asia)

I think English needs the same.

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this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2024
149 points (95.7% liked)

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