Same Earth — So Why Do Continent Counts Differ?
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Transcript
- Why does the number of continents change depending on who's counting?
- We assume oceans split them, so the count is fixed.
- Think of a pizza. Six slices or eight? Same pizza — it depends on how you cut it.
- Europe and Asia are really one landmass. The border is a line people drew along the Urals.
- The Americas are joined by a thin strip of land, so some count them as one.
- Some skip Antarctica, which has no native people. Korean even has a word for 'six continents' — no Antarctica. The Olympic rings leave it out too.
- So none of them is wrong. The count is an agreement.
- Seven or six? Drop just the number in the comments.
Sources
- National Geographic Education, "Continent" (Encyclopedic Entry)
- 국립국어원 표준국어대사전, 「육대주(六大洲)」
- IOC, "Olympic rings - Symbol of the Olympic Movement"
- Smithsonian Insider, "Recent connection between North and South America reaffirmed" (2016-08)
- CIA World Factbook (archive 2023), "Population" field — Antarctica: no indigenous inhabitants
- IOC, Olympic Charter, Rule 8 "The Olympic symbol"
- Wikipedia, "Continent" (2차, 교차 확인용)