306

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
[-] Nemo@midwest.social 17 points 2 years ago

A regular straw has zero holes. The central cavity, through which beverages flow, is not part of the straw, and hence it's endpoints are not holes in the straw.

[-] paholg@lemmy.one 23 points 2 years ago

A straw is topologically the same as a donut. It absolutely has one hole.

[-] SaakoPaahtaa@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

Just realized humans are topological donuts

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 7 points 2 years ago

Dude your mom’s a topological donut

[-] meekah@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Almost. First you need to choose the minimum size of a hole. If you define a hole as something just a bit larger than skin pores, a human has 7 holes. Even when defining a hole as something around 1cm, you have at least 3 holes (your nostrils, mouth and anus share one cavity).

[-] JasonDJ@vlemmy.net 1 points 2 years ago

If Gordon Ramsey were a cartographer…

[-] Subtlysubtle@sffa.community 1 points 1 year ago

You guys are all getting down voted and this misses out on the pure entertainment value of these comments

[-] SaakoPaahtaa@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Thought so, donut.

[-] Nemo@midwest.social 2 points 2 years ago

Doughnuts don't have holes, "donutholes" notwithstanding. A doughnut is a torus. If you poke through the side of a doughnut, then it has a hole.

[-] paholg@lemmy.one 1 points 2 years ago

Take a pancake. Put a hole in it. It's now a torus.

[-] Nemo@midwest.social 2 points 2 years ago

Sure, but it's a pancake with a hole in it. Pancakes ought to be disks (which is, topologically, a squashed sphere).

If you put a hole in a doughnut it is no longer a torus. A hole deforms the manifold of an object.

[-] meekah@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago

by that logic, holes do not exist. holes are by definition not part of the material.

[-] Nemo@midwest.social 2 points 2 years ago

But they are present where you'd expect the material of the object. No one expects a straw to be a solid cylinder, ergo, the central cavity is not a hole.

[-] meekah@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

That's not how it works. It's pretty unanimously understood that a donut has a hole, yet nobody expects material to be there, even though there are donuts without holes.

There are no straws without a hole. A straw without a hole is a stick. The hole is an integral part of the straw.

[-] PopularUsername@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I see, so like, if it identifies as a hole it's not a hole? So a cheese grater has no holes. But if I jam a screwdriver through the cheese grater, now it has a hole? What if I like the new hole and want to consider it a part of the cheese grater? Do we hold a vote on which hole identifies as a property of the object? Or do objects self-identify? I don't speak cheese grater, this is going to get difficult.

this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
306 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27380 readers
981 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 !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. 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 info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


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 2 years ago
MODERATORS