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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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This would mean a straw has a hole, yes. It would be like a donut indeed - donuts are first whole, then have the hole punched out of them. This meets a dictionary definition of a hole (a perforation). A subtractive process has removed an area, leaving a hole.
But straws aren't manufactured this way, their solid bits are additively formed around the empty area. I personally don't think this meets the definition.
Your topological argument is strong though - both a donut and straw share the same topological feature, but when we use these math abstractions, things can be a bit weird. For instance, a hollow torus (imagine a creme-filled donut that has not yet had its shell penetrated to fill it) has two holes. One might not expect this since it looks like it still only obviously has one, but the "inner torus" consisting of negative space (that represents the hollow) is itself a valid topological hole as well.
“This meets a dictionary definition of a hole.
But straws aren't manufactured this way, their solid bits are additively formed around the empty area. I personally don't think this meets the definition.”
By this logic, how I make a doughnut changes whether it has a hole.
If I make a long string of dough and then connect the ends together and cook it (a forming process) it doesn’t have a hole.
If I cut a hole in a dough disc and then cook (a perforation) it has a hole. Even though the final result is identical?
On the matter of the doughnut: If you make them at home, you're almost always just rolling a cylinder and then making it a circle. I have never actually punched a hole out of a doughnut. That would mess up the toroidal shape.
But also: So you're saying a straw has 0 holes?
Maybe she's not, but I am. An intact straw has zero holes. If you stick a pin in the side, it has one. If you stick a pin all the way through, it has two.