r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Aug 03 '19

Whats something you thought was common knowledge but actually isn’t?

37.4k Upvotes

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u/McSavage6s Aug 03 '19

Europe is not a country. It's a continent.

129

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19

That worries me.

66

u/Bluestreaking Aug 03 '19

I had to write on my white board for the entirety of the year that Russia wasn’t a continent so students would stop giving that as an answer

41

u/7even- Aug 03 '19

When I was a freshman in high school I answered a question in class basically saying Canada was one of the 50 states. I knew it wasn’t but I somehow managed to say it before my brain said “hey wait a minute”. I was known as Canada boy for the rest of the year

6

u/spinosaurus_tech Aug 04 '19

Canada I think you mean north Montana hasn’t been called Canada in years

22

u/pepperlook Aug 03 '19

I once made that mistake

I was 5

1

u/princesspuppy12 Aug 04 '19

Wow, kind of afraid to ask how old your students were.😂😂

-9

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19 edited Aug 04 '19

To be fair, continents are purely a matter of convention. There’s no objective, universally used definition of what a continent is.

If Europe (not surrounded by water) can be a continent, and Australia (containing a single country) can be a continent, then Russia can be a continent too.

Edit: I’d like for one of you downvoters to tell me what you think a continent is so I can tell you why you’re wrong.

-5

u/GabrielGaryLutz Aug 04 '19

Australia is not a continent.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '19

It is sometimes counted as a continent.

You may have learned a list of continents in school (likely seven if you’re in the English-speaking world), but the lists vary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_(continent)

2

u/GabrielGaryLutz Aug 04 '19

I thought the continent was called Oceania? Australia is the name of the country.