this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
291 points (94.5% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26278 readers
1421 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

At work we somehow landed on the topic of how many holes a human has, which then evolved into a heated discussion on the classic question of how many holes does a straw have.

I think it's two, but some people are convinced that it's one, which I just don't understand. What are your thoughts?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The answer depends on the context. Topologically, it's one. I personally like zero. If I say "There's a hole in my straw!" You'll not think all straws have holes. You'll think there's something wrong with it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

To be fair, I think shirts already have holes, but if I said "there's a hole in my shirt" you'd think there was an EXTRA hole

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

If you say "There's a hole in my straw" I think it's always implied you're talking about an unexpected hole. You can also say "There's a hole in my sweater/pasta strainer/etc" and people would get you're talking about a hole that is not supposed to be there. Straws are the same. They have one hole and you'd be unhappy if another appeared.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A cup is essentially a self-contained hole that we pour stuff in, but if I say there's a hole in my cup you'd know what I meant

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From a topology perspective, a cup does not have a hole. A mug does, but its the hole that the handle makes, not the area containing liquid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I see a lot of folks referencing topology, but clearly topology is not a particularly good go-to for how to talk about holes.

  • From a topological perspective, a hole in the ground isn't a hole... But you can still fall into it.

  • From a topological perspective, a hole in your logic isn't a hole -- but you can still have one.

Clearly we're talking linguistically, not topologically.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

No, I´ll be puzzled for a second and then think you are making a joke.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was also thinking zero. I picture a straw as a rectangular piece of material that's been curled to form a cylinder, and in my mind that rectangle has no holes in it. I was confused when I saw that the options were only one or two.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

As far as 2D topology is concerned the number of holes increase when you glue the edges of the rectangle together.

Though in that case you're basically counting how many boundaries the surface has, which for a straw is 2 distinct circles.