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The World in plate carrée projection
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The World


The World is a proper noun for the planet Earth envisioned from an anthropocentric or human worldview, as a place inhabited by human beings. It is often used to signify the sum of human experience and history, or the 'human condition' in general.[1] There are approximately 6.6 billion (or 6600 million) people living on the Earth.[2]

Especially in a metaphysical context, World may refer to everything that constitutes reality and the Universe: refer World (philosophy).

Etymology

In English, may be parsed as rooted in a compound of the obsolete words were, "man", and eld, "age"; thus, its etymology may be semantically rendered as "age or life of man".[3]

Usage

'World' distinguishes the entire planet or population from any particular country or region: world affairs are those which pertain not just to one place but to the whole world, and world history is a field of history which examines events from a global (rather than a national or a regional) perspective. Earth, on the other hand, refers to the planet as a physical entity, and distinguishes it from other planets and physical objects.

In Christian theology, the 'World' connotes the corrupt, mortal order of society outside the community of believers (which is worldly as opposed to heavenly). It is often cited alongside the flesh and the Devil as a source of temptation that Christians should flee. The adjective worldly refers to world in this sense: 'mortal', 'mundane', 'devoted to the interests of this world'. See World (theology).

'World' can also be used attributively, as an adjective, to mean 'global', 'relating to the whole world', forming usages such as World community. See World (adjective).

By extension, a 'world' may refer to any planet or heavenly body, especially when it is thought of as inhabited.

In the study of religion and mythology, the Underworld is a place, often thought of as below the world, where souls go upon death. In some mythologies there were numerous underworlds, the choice of which depended on the soul's virtue or worth: the Elysian Fields are an example from Roman religion.

'World', when qualified, can also refer to a particular domain of human experience.
  • The world of work describes paid work and the pursuit of a career, in all its social aspects, to distinguish it from home life and academic study.
  • The fashion world describes the environment of the designers, fashion houses and consumers that make up the fashion industry.
  • The New World is a part of the world discovered or colonized later than other parts; it usually refers to the American continents or to Australia. The Old World refers, by contrast, to the continents of Europe, Asia and north Africa.
Note that in American English 'World' is often used synonymously with "domestic U.S.A." in expressions such as "became known to the world" meaning that something has been made public in U.S. media, or World Series.

Physical characteristics

Earth dimensions

Physical feature
Superficial area510,000,000 km² (196,950,000 Sq. miles)
Land surface149,000,000 km² (57,510,000 Sq. miles)
Water surface361,000,000 km² (139,440,000 Sq. miles)
Equatorial circumference40,077 km (24,902 miles)
Meridional circumference40,009 km (24,860 miles)
Equatorial diameter12,757 km (7,926 miles)
Polar diameter12,714 km (7,899.988 miles)
Polar radius6,356.89 km (3,949.99 miles)
Volume of the Earth1,080,000,000,000 km³ (260,000,000,000 cubic miles)
Mass5,980,000,000,000,000,000,000 tonnes (6,592,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons)

History

The World was discovered in England in 1987

Continents and population

Size
continentarea (km²)percent
World149 000 000100
Africa-Eurasia84 580 00057
Eurasia54 210 00036
Asia43 810 00029
Americas42 330 00028
Africa30 370 00020
North America24 494200 00016
South America17 840 00012
Antarctica13 720 0009.2
Europe10 400 0007.0
Oceania9 014200 0006.0
Australia-New Guinea8 500 0005.7
Australia mainland7 600 0005.1
Human Population
continentapprox. populationpercent
World6 450 000 000100
Africa-Eurasia5 400 000 00084
Eurasia4 510 000 00070
Asia3 800 000 00059
Africa890 000 00014
Americas886 000 00014
Europe71420 000 00011
North America515 000 0008.0
South America371 000 0005.8
Oceania35 800 0000.55
Australia-New Guinea30 000 0000.5
Australia mainland21 000 7860.3
Antarctica1 0000.002

See also

External links

References

1. ^ 'This is the excellent foppery of the world...' -- Shakespeare, King Lear, I.ii
2. ^ David, Leonard. "Planet's Population Hit 6.6 Billion Saturday", Live Science, 2006-02-24. Retrieved on 2006-04-02. 
3. ^ American Heritage Dictionary
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Oceania (sometimes Oceanica) is a geographical, often geopolitical, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The exact scope of Oceania is defined variously, with interpretations often including Australia, New Zealand, New
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Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area.
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Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.4% of its land area) and, with almost 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population.
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Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. Physically and geologically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea,
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North America is a continent [1] in the Earth's northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the south and west
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South America is a continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie
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Earth's oceans
(World Ocean)
  • Arctic Ocean
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Indian Ocean
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Southern Ocean


The Pacific Ocean (from the Latin name Mare Pacificum
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Earth's oceans
(World Ocean)
  • Arctic Ocean
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Indian Ocean
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Southern Ocean


The Pacific Ocean (from the Latin name Mare Pacificum
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Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres (41.1 million square miles), it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface.
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Earth's oceans
(World Ocean)
  • Arctic Ocean
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Indian Ocean
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Southern Ocean
This article is about the water body. For the Indian fusion music band, see Indian Ocean (band).

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Earth's oceans
(World Ocean)
  • Arctic Ocean
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Indian Ocean
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Great Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean and the South Polar Ocean
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Earth's oceans
(World Ocean)
  • Arctic Ocean
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Indian Ocean
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Southern Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the northern hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest of the world's five
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Middle East is a historical and political region of Africa-Eurasia with no clear boundaries. The term "Middle East" was popularized around 1900 in Britain, and has been criticized for its loose definition.
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Caribbean (Dutch: Cariben or Caraïben, or more commonly Antillen; French: Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Spanish: Caribe
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Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. Though various definitions of its exact composition exist, no one definition is universally accepted. Despite this uncertainty in defining borders, it does have some important overall characteristics.
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East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Geographically, it covers about 12,000,000 km², or about 28% of the Asian continent and about 15% bigger than the area of Europe. More than 1.
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North Asia or Northern Asia is a subregion of Asia. The most common definition of the term is;
  • The Asian part of Russia, namely Asian Siberia; however, by some definitions, not all of Northern Asia is part of Siberia.

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South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is a southern geopolitical region of the Asian continent comprising territories on and in proximity to the Indian subcontinent. It is surrounded by (from west to east) Western Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Asia, and Southeastern Asia.
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Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, and north of Australia.
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Southwest Asia or Southwestern Asia (largely overlapping with the Middle East) is the southwestern portion of Asia. The term Western Asia is sometimes used in writings about the archeology and the late prehistory of the region, and in the United States subregion
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Australasia is a term variably used to describe a region of Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes (1756).
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Melanesia (from Greek: μέλας black, νῆσος island) is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western side of the West Pacific to the Arafura Sea, north and north-east of Australia.
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Micronesia, from the Greek mikros (μικρός) (meaning small) and nesos (νῆσος) (meaning island), is a subregion of Oceania, comprising hundreds of small islands in the Pacific Ocean.
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Polynesia (from Greek: πολύς many, νῆσος island) is a subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean.
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Central America (Spanish: Centroamérica or América Central) is a central geographic region of the Americas. It is variably defined either as the southern portion of North America, which connects with South America on the southeast, or a region of
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Latin America (Portuguese and Spanish: América Latina; French: Amérique Latine) is the region of the Americas where Romance languages, those derived from Latin (particularly Spanish and Portuguese), are primarily spoken.
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Northern America is the northernmost region of the Americas, distinct from but part of the North American continent, including all territories north of Middle America. Geopolitically, according to the scheme of geographic regions and subregions used by the United Nations, Northern
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Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World consisting of the continents of North America[1] and South America with their associated islands and regions. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.
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Central Africa is a core region of the African continent often considered to include:
  • Burundi
  • Central African Republic
  • Chad
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Rwanda
Middle Africa
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