science

Old World

Old World is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Old World rather than just read about it. In short: The "Old World" (Latin: Mundus vetustus) is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas, Oceania, and Antarctica. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously thought of by the Europeans as the entire world, with the "New World", the newly encountered lands of the Western Hemisphere, particu…

Key takeaways

Old World belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Old World to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Old World from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The "Old World" (Latin: Mundus vetustus) is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas, Oceania, and Antarctica. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously thought of by the Europeans as the entire world, with the "New World", the newly encountered lands of the Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas.

History In the context of archaeology and world history, the term "Old World" includes those parts of the world which were in (indirect) cultural contact from the Bronze Age onward, resulting in the parallel development of the early civilizations, mostly in the temperate zone between roughly the 45th and 25th parallels north, in the area of the Mediterranean, including North Africa. It also included Mesopotamia, the Persian plateau, the Indian subcontinent, China, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa. These regions were connected via the Silk Road trade route, and they had a pronounced Iron Age period following the Bronze Age. In cultural terms, the Iron Age was accompanied by the so-called Axial Age, referring to cultural, philosophical and religious developments eventually leading to the emergence of the historical Western (Hellenism, "classical"), Near Eastern (Zoroastrian and Abrahamic), and Far Eastern (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Confucianism, Taoism) cultural spheres.

Other names The mainland of Afro-Eurasia (excluding islands or island groups such as the British Isles, Japan, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, and the Malay Archipelago) has been referred to as the World Island. The term may have been coined by Sir Halford John Mackinder in The Geographical Pivot of History.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Old World

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Old World claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Old World before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Old World ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Old World

In research: Old World appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Old World in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Old World is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 16th-century neologisms, Afro-Eurasia, Age of Discovery, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Old World outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Old World in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Old World means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Old World out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Old World in simple terms?

Why does Old World matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Old World?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Old World.