This is one of those "if you cut a hole in a net, it then has less holes than before" type arguments and I'm all here for it.
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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I think it would still techically be more hole since a larger total area would be hole.
I would be fewer holes, though.
More cheese -> more holes
More holes -> less cheese
Therefore: More cheese -> less cheese
Thinking about it, humans have one less hole than I would've guessed, since the tube from our mouth to our anus sort of makes us a complicated straw.
The human body is just a series of tubes.
The internet and I have that in common, I guess.
One of my friends is a Taurus as well. He's a car.
How many holes does he have?
At least 5. I'm unwilling to do a more thorough count, tho.
what an interesting looking Tesla
The average person is a straw.
This is a strawman argument.
I love you for this!
Not really, they're some sort of tube, but they don't classify as straws
I'm a series of tubes!
You're the Internet?
Yes! You can call me.... The lawnmower man!
(I'm seriously dating myself with that reference)
I remember thinking this was top notch graphics in 1992.
It was uncanny and disturbing back then. It's uncanny, disturbing, and hilarious now.
The throughput and containment of the object is the criteria for classification here.
Can the object passing through the hole be contained by the medium of the object that is subject to the "hole" classification? If yes, then the object has two holes, one which the passing object passes through to enter the object, and one which is passed through to exit the object.
If the object passing through the object being classified cannot be contained entirely within the classification object medium, then the classification object has one hole.
This kind of classification relies upon the context of the item's usage, and is in fact a "contextually dependent" classification!
Take the straw for example:
When a straw is being used for drinking bubble tea, the straw has two holes when a boba is passing through. The straw has two holes for each ice crystal or clump of crystals that passes through.
Does the straw have two holes for a liquid? Good question! This is also a contextually dependent classification criteria, though this time it is a matter of reference frame! Do you consider a liqiud to be a macro expression of the fluid dynamics of the molecules comprising the medium? Then it is a whole, though I would suggest that the "whole" of the liquid in the container from which it is being drawn to be one "whole" and the liquid which is drawn into the straw during the vacuum action (from the initiation of the "pull" through to its conclusion) to be a new and unique "part" separated from the source volume and comprises a new "whole".
Ok, so NOW if the newly separated volume of liquid being drawn into the straw is less than the total volume of the straw, the straw has two holes (one hole being drawn upon, and one hole into which the newly created liquid volume is being drawn into.
Are you very thirsty? Have you drawn more liquid through the straw than the volume of the straw itself? You could then say the straw only had one hole for the duration of that pull!
On the other hand, if you are defining each molecule within the liquid medium to be its own object, then the straw always has two holes.
I don't personally subscribe to the notion that a straw is a single hole, since, in the abstract, my gut reaction is to define a hole as an absence of something, rather than a property of something else. Tools used to make holes (a shovel, an auger, a 3 hole punch, a gravitational singularity, etc.) all remove a part of the initial object, rather than "adding an absence" (ground media, paper circles, or the physical constants of dimensional spacetime, respectively).
Now that I'm thinking about it though, a straw is constructed by extrusion. The straw media is forced through a mold which defines the initial hole (the initially extruded straw media, which, as side note, is almost certainly trimmed to be cleanly cut to present as clean and uniform tip) and then subsequently, each straw would be severed at standard intervals to make the straw object. While considering this, I feel like it provides even more support for the "two hole argument" as each end of each straw must be independently and intentionally "formed" during the process of manufacturing.
Thoughts?
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The real issue is "Hole" is not desctiptive enough for a clear answer. A straw has one "Through Hole". If you dig a hole in the ground you have one "Blind Hole".
A circle is a plane folded on itself so the answer is technically 0 holes. But first what is a hole?
a sphere is a plane folded in on itself, and spheres have no (one-dimensional) holes. but spheres do have a two-dimensional hole, which is basically a way of saying they’re hollow.
a circle is a line folded in on itself, and circles have one (one-dimensional) hole.
edit: the claim that circles and straws are homotopic is basically a fancy way of saying: “if you place a straw upright on a table and flatten it by smashing your hand down on it, you will end up with a circle.”
A goal?
How about a pair of jeans?
If anyone wants to see an entertaining mathematician talk about this exact topic for 30 minutes, here you go:
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darfuck is homotopic?
topologically same
There's a math joke I remember hearing ~10 years ago, I can't remember the whole thing, but it was something about a mathematician not being able to tell the difference between a coffee mug and a donut, they have the same number of holes so they're the same shape.
Edit:
I also was also told once that since the nostrils and mouth are connected holes which lead to the asshole, humans are homotopic with fidget spinners.
It's what I identify as on Grindr
Think of a box with an arrangement of holes that allows us to look through it if we are correctly positioned.
Would anyone dare to say that such a thing is possible to achieve with only one hole? (I'm not allowing holes in corners and edges to make my point)
A straw has 2 holes.
Reminds me of the old "Are there more doors or wheels in the world?" question
Definitely wheels. All that machinery with wheels for the belts, all transportation, toys, ... I can't fathom there being as many doors.
Unless I'm wooshed :D
Depends on how broadly you define door. When you think about it, a transistor could be considered as a sort of door for electrons, for example, and there are 19 billion transistors in the processor of an iPhone
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S¹ × [0, L]
~~I don't understand why a circle has one/a hole though.~~ I don't even know what a hole is.
Edit: Ok, circles might not have holes, they have interiors?
Make sure you're distinguishing between a circle and a disc.
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