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?
If you make the straw less long, it’s a donut. And a donut obviously has 1 hole. So a long donut only has one hole. Q.E.D
A straw is geometrically the same as a circular piece of paper with a z depth of zero and a hole in the middle. Because the z depth is zero there is only one hole. As you add thickness the one hole remains. Therefore, a straw has one hole.
How many holes does a donut have?
Now make the donut higher. A lot higher. Now you have a donut-tunnel. Now make the walls thinner. Now shrink it. Now you have a straw.
One hole.
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.
A straw is topologically the same as a donut. It absolutely has one hole.
It has two exits, one hole.
If you drill a hole in a block of wood you create one hole not two, note that whether or not the drill exits the opposite side, only one hole has been created despite differing numbers of exits.
What if you drill through a book?
You’ll be banned from the bookstore