Geography and the Properties of Surfaces. The Continent Problem--Geography and Spatial Variance

摘要

Let the earth's surface be regarded as consisting of sets of two kinds of places, land and not-land. In terms of the analysis of variance applied to spatial distributions, how may the fragmented distribution of land over the earth's surface be regarded as grouped into continents, each a separate source of spatial variance. Various variance ratios are investigated in this paper. A first approximation to a rigorous and defensible definition of continents based on spatial considerations alone is given and a more refined method is outlined. (Author)