I would think that there is a "Victoria" on each continent. ?

Don't tell me, I didn't write the question

Well, he was caped, and he was a crusader. So not really stupid!

I was schooled in Yorkshire and we were definitely taught that there are only five continents in the world, and we were also given the explanation below.

I vaguely remember being told that too, back in 1950s Lancashire.

That's interesting to hear. Did you also go to school in the 50s or 60s? I was at school later than that and definitely remember being taught there were seven continents. Maybe it changed at some point or does it vary in different schools?

Maybe when you went to school they hadn't yet discovered the other two...

I was there in the 60's and 70's.

Thanks well I guess the way it was taught must have changed at some point then. I didn't realize there was so much debate about it actually but it appears there is no definitive correct interpretation.

Deleted. Wrong thread.

I am sure we were always taught about 'five continents'. 'Six continents' or 'Seven continents' certainly does sound familiar whatever the reasons for adding the extra continents.

I get the impression there is some politics in the choice of numbers. The French use six with one continent of America - is this to knock the USA down in status by including South America?

Wiki (and other sources) says this.



It's not unanswerable, using all the definitions South America is the only continent that fitted, no other continent under any of the models fitted.


The Olympic rings thing just confuses things, it is not an authoritative source and doesn't include Antarctica which is a continent on almost all models. People probably remember 5 continents because of the rings (easy catchy thing to remember) but that doesn't make it right.

Having been a teacher, I can say that about 50% of what you are taught in school becomes wrong at some point.

Maths is usually OK, but some genius at some point will question even that.

History depends on who's telling it. Different countries, and even regions, tell it from their own point of view.

Geography is always changing even if it's only outlines of countries through coastal erosion.

English is a living language and therefore changes as new words and ways of communicating develop.

The sciences most definitely change as new discoveries are made. For instance, when I was at school in the 1950s who knew that mercury gives off dangerous vapour? And how many of us happily sucked on asbestos fibres when using Rawlplastic for holding screws into walls?

So really a fact may only be a fact depending who's telling it, when it's being told, when it's proven to be completely wrong or until something else supercedes it.

The spelling of "supersedes" hasn't changed though That's one thing I remember from school!

'supercede' is an older form that was used in the 17th and 18th Century though surprisingly it has not even survived in Transpondian.

If you say so, but most people get it wrong.

I've always used "supercede", on the rare occasions I've used the word. Probably because I've always taken it as stemming from "cede".

I was at school in the 60s and 70s and we were taught that there were 5 continents - and each one had the same first and last letter.

Agree... I'm sure there was a QI topic where they talked about the percentage of facts they'd given in previous series that had now been proven wrong as knowledge is updated over time.

Doesn't make it right, though. How do you know it's "most" people, anyway?

And the etymology has nothing to do with "cede". It comes from the Latin "supersedere", "to sit above", or be superior to.

Yes, I remember that too.

Yes, our Latin teacher mentioned that as a way of remembering the English spelling. It's always stuck with me.

As a slight digression, it's sad that Latin isn't taught as a matter of course in schools these days. Much of the English language derives from it, and it helps with the learning of other languages too, which British people in general are notoriously bad at.

Because I work in an office where the word comes into use quite frequently, part of my job is proof reading and "most people" at work get it wrong, Obviously I cannot do a census of the whole of the population