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Can we settle this: how many holes does a straw have?
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this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
No, I´ll be puzzled for a second and then think you are making a joke.