How Many Holes Does A Straw Have? The Correct Answer Explained

This question has generated a lot of debate online. BuzzFeed's video has 450,000+ views already. But the question has a mathematical interpretation with a correct answer: in topology, how many holes does a straw have? I explain and animate the answer in the video. It's great to see topology go viral!
My blog post for this video
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• How Many Holes Does A ...
Drinking Straws: How Many Holes? Kevin Knudson, professor of mathematics at the University of Florida
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2016 Nobel Prize in Physics
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[@MindYourDecisions]

Happy 2 year anniversary! At the time my channel was very small and people asked why I would even make a video, so let me share the history. The topic was trending and Buzzfeed posted a reaction video that racked up 450,000 views. I thought the topic was a great way to teach some math and topology. It is now 2 years later...Buzzfeed's video has 566,000 views, my video has 800,000 views, and a video by VSauce on the topic is trending right now with over 3 million views (search for how many holes does a human have). It is often said math is not popular, but it seems math and science are Buzzworthy topics after all!

[@DR.DRE77]

Congrats

[@9459]

Congrats

[@leonardlangner9949]

Hey couldn’t you say that the straw has infinite holes because there are infinite circles? Continue making your videos Great job 💪🏻.

[@beststar88]

Can you use dark background .

[@jagatiello6900]

Nice one Presh, I think your graphical explanation for the 1 hole answer is easier to see than trying to explain the imposibility to (continously) shrink any closed curve over the straw's surface down to a point...and this reminded me of the poincare conjecture that perelman proved true in 2003

[@Querez8504]

Before I watch: one. After I watch: yes

[@mr.happypineapple3846]

What

[@ezzbuttheyshouldntleavethe5529]

I thought it would be 2

[@mercury9060]

M'Games U.K ßßß I always thought it was 1 because it’s one continuous hole.

[@YourLocalMedic]

If you take a cylander and push the middle out you have only created a single hole.

[@spicysquire]

Lol same.

[@iHoRst-du6vv]

1903: i bet there will be flying cars in the future 2018: how many holes does a straw have?

[@alternitivefacts379]

iHoRst2000 Dude lol. I need 2 vape now

[@pupycron]

Humanity is evolving

[@qk7x]

Not liking

[@9535310131]

iHoRst2000 10000BC: What's the meaning of life? 2018AD: what's the meaning of life? This makes no sense

[@naughtyskweet6]

1898: let's try heroin cough syrup 2018: let's definitely not try heroin cough syrup.

[@facemask6376]

KZbin poll brought me here

[@zoelouise1735]

ME TOO

[@spider_p00l95]

We might be from the same Poll

[@bam1129]

Me too

[@litete2512]

Yes.

[@joshuagauthier_]

I literally saw that post like 17 hours ago, and it’s been on my mind since,, so now I’m here...

[@billvojtech5686]

I've listened to 1:56 and have this to say: It depends on your definition of "hole" and of "straw." If you start with a rod and drill a hole through its center along its long axis, then it has one hole, (like a reusable metal drinking straw). If the straw is formed by winding a flat material in a spiral and glueing the edges where they meet, (as in a paper drinking straw), you could say it has no holes.

[@BetaKeja]

I believe the mathematicians would tell you that gluing the edges together is not a continuous transformation and so you have in fact added a hole.

[@sixstanger00]

It doesn't matter how the "straw" is made. The end result is the same - a long tube. As a tube, it's a length of hollow material with both ends open. It has one hole.

[@oldfart1079]

To make a hole material has to be removed in such a fashion that material is surrounded by the voided space. A straw, tube and a hose by it's nature has a voided space. I firmly believe there is no holes in such things. Unless damage has occurred or someone willfully makes one. Drilling a hole in a rod merely speaks to the manufacturer of the straw. I don't understand the quotation marks around the words hole and straw in your comment.

[@billvojtech5686]

@@oldfart1079 Some people might define a "straw" as a water resistant paper tube formed by coiling and glueing paper around a rod shaped mandrel, or as an extruded plastic tube. Some may include a glass or metal tube in the definition of a straw. Some may define "hole" as an empty space formed by removing material. So if they define "straw" by the first definition and use the definition of "hole" I gave, they would say a paper straw didn't have a hole, but a stainless steel straw made on a lathe in a machine shop does.

[@oldfart1079]

@@billvojtech5686 yes there a multiple ways to manufacturer a straw. Nature herself can in deed manufacturer straw's and holes. Not all holes persist through an object, a cup or drinking glass are good examples of such holes commonly referred to as a "blind" hole. In manufacturing "blind" holes are used for screw fasteners and through holes are for bolt and nut fasteners.

[@milandavid7223]

I think the main confusion comes from the fact that "hole" can mean different things. If you think about a hole as an opening, it's 2 If you think about a hole as a tunnel, it's 1 If you think about a hole as a defect, it's 0. Of course mathematically there's 1 hole.

[@gustavohermandio1440]

gratz. you just put in words what everyone was thinking but couldn't formulate. you win

[@GDPlainA]

this is the most comment of the entire century

[@ThatNerdAlbert]

@@GDPlainA definitely the most comment

[@hillaryclinton2415]

It's just a rearranged donut....

[@P4R53C5]

Mathematically holes are tunnels so Yes

[@NA-ck6cz]

Never thought a straw could stir such a philosophical conversation

[@alexandradutu1155]

*touché.*

[@Quirktart]

Was that a pun?

[@jorge-zi2yz]

get out

[@gorillaau]

Over many a Martini, I'm sure.

[@TheMegaPingasMobile]

this was the last straw

[@jamesnabors3643]

From a manufacturing standpoint, a paper straw has zero holes. It is a rhombus spindled around a cylinder and glued into place. The rhombus remains intact, thus no holes.

[@ukulelevillain4170]

thats not what a hole is. a donut is made with dough and that dough remains intact, so therefor a donut doesn't have a hole?

[@crinolynneendymion8755]

@@ukulelevillain4170 The doughnut does indeed not have a hole. The doughnut is wrapped around a hole. Oh wait, it's not, there's no hole to wrap around. Anyway, the nut is the part of the doughnut that was the hole, but and so it's the nut is in quantum entanglement with the hole.

[@ddebenedictis]

A donut has pi holes.

[@jamesnabors3643]

@@ukulelevillain4170 Some commercial donuts have the holes punched in them, then those are sold separately.

[@SY-mn6qb]

+1 manufacturing mind

[@RJTheBikeGuy]

If I have a piece of wood, and drill a hole through it, it has one hole. If I carve the outside of the wood down until it's a tube (a straw), it still only has one hole. Not too complicated.

[@X22GJP]

If you're going to be clever, you need to call it a "through hole", not just a hole. Besides, you're overcomplicating it. Topologically it's just like taking that straw and morphing it into a flat disc. It'll still retain the one through hole.

[@liamg1706]

One entry hole and one exit hole . Whats in between is a hollow.

[@LimeGreenTeknii]

Here's how I explain it: A donut has one hole, right? Imagine you could stretch a donut so it's taller so that it looks like a straw. If you believe a donut has one hole and a straw has two holes, at some point when you stretch that donut, it must go from having one hole to two, which doesn't make much sense.

[@MartinPHellwig]

LimeGreenTeknii My thoughts where someone along does line but I came at zero holes, since a doughnut to have a hole, it's surface being a 3d object must have at least two holes. The surface of a doughnut has no holes thus the doughnut has no holes.

[@you2tooyou2too]

That seems to be his explanation above, but without food. It might help this topololgy discussion to define a solid blob (even with profound depressions but no perforations, as an object with no holes. The human body, (barring fistulas or artificial perforations) has 4 openings, all connected at the back of the throat: 2 nostrils, a mouth, and anus. How many 'holes' is that? (Ears, eye sockets, eustachian tubes, sinuses, bladders, etc are just 'depressions' that don't 'go thru'.) PS: English is used by many people with different cultures. A topologist has a useful definition for 'hole', and so does a farmer with a post hole digger, who also has a different term; 'thru-hole' (also used by machinists & commercial engineers). If either is 'wrong', it is a matter of context & code-switching. Does topology have a name for a post-hole? If not, does that make it the more limited context? Our minds are certainly flexible enough to manage multiple, sometimes contradictory definitions for many words.

[@NetAndyCz]

Well I am not sure if doughnut (or circle) does have a hole since the shape is kind of defind without the hole. I would agree that the straw is just really long doughnut, but the question is whether the doughnut has hole or not and how is the hole actually defined.

[@Shyhalu]

Donuts have 2 holes. Coffee Mug has 1. The issue with this problem is that no one is making a distinction between intentional holes and unintentional holes.

[@rmsgrey]

+shyhalu Coffee Mugs (with handles that loop back to the body of the mug) and Doughnuts are the same (topological) shape - a ring with blobby bits. A good test for whether something has a (topological) hole is whether you could take a length of elastic, wrap it loosely around the object in some way, attach the ends of the elastic together to form a closed loop, and then be unable to separate the elastic from the object without either breaking the loop, or breaking the object. So you can form the loop so that you can't separate it from a doughnut, or the handle of a coffee mug, but no matter how you arrange the elastic, you'll always be able to get it away from a wineglass. That doesn't settle how many holes something has, just whether it has any, but it's a starting point.

[@dellmix16]

Normal person: 2 holes Mathematician: 1 hole Philosopher: 0 holes

[@ahmadabdullah8168]

Me: Infinite holes

[@grobertoac2430]

Any normal person says there's 1 hole...

[@ariesmars29]

A physicist could argue that it has an infinite number of holes aligned beside each other. Or be like vsauce, use his reasoning with the "How many holes does a donut have?" video.

[@ahmadabdullah8168]

@@ariesmars29 so am i a physicist? 🤔🤔

[@CR3W1SH03S]

Neo: There is no straw.

[@tamlynburleigh9267]

My first thought was to define a hole. It must have some height, so any solid with a change in surface height downwards must be a hole. After that I struggled with all sorts of counter definitions. It was a really interesting exercise. Thanks.

[@dhrracer]

We must first define what is a straw. Could the straw have a cross section structure inside to support the wall? Creating four paths for fluid to flow? Would it still be a straw? Does the word straw actually just define how an object is used? "a thin hollow tube of paper or plastic for sucking drink from a glass or bottle". This may be the common image of what we think a straw is. But how does this explain if I use a short section of a thin wall tube or pipe as a straw. My answer is there is no answer. A straw can have as many holes as anybody wants to design into it. I remember as a kid straws that had basically two in one twisted around each other. But to define a hole. Can a hole have a hole in it? Or would that just be one hole with variable dimension?

[@macmcleod1188]

If you had an infinitely thin plane and there was an area which lacked material where you could go from one side of the plane to the other, wouldn't that be a hole?

[@jermu9607]

By that logic (and dont get me wrong there is nothing wrong with that logic) holes as we usually think they are can not exist. Since you can allways travel on the edge of the "hole" and end up on otherside of that "hole" which is still on The same infinitely thin plane. This is why my reaction to this riddle was that this can not be answered before The question defines "a hole".

[@Durwood2k]

A hole is an exit point. A cup has one exit point, one hole, a leaky cup has two exits, so two holes. A straw? Two exits, so two holes.

[@Durwood2k]

@@macmcleod1188 you cant use impossible scenarios to prove a real scenario.

[@notdonaldst]

Interesting. I was looking at it geometrically, without the mathematic elements. I figured a straw was basically a hollow cylinder so it was pretty much a rod with a single hole inside. I came up with the same answer by intuition instead of math.

[@lonnieporter8566]

Personally, I used observation to arrive at the same conclusion.

[@Skywalker8510Too]

I came up with the same answer based on how I could create a straw in cad. Create a solid cylinder and use the hole command to create 1 hole through the entire thing.

[@sed6]

Yes, a rod with a hole in it!

[@X22GJP]

Of course no other comments were read at the time either...

[@DarkSession6208]

Non mathematically speaking it must have only one hole for engineers. Because if you drill 16 Holes into a metal plate with a regular drill to put screws inside its still just 16 holes and not 32. If you would tell 1000 handcrafters to drill 16 holes they would all drill only 16 holes, no matter how long or wide the object is they drill into. I think this is the only explanation as to why its only one hole for the majority of people.

[@0colorad0]

Wait-wait-wait Do you really expect Buzzfeed to do something reasonable?

[@BallJuiceOfZeus]

Is there a spider on your ceiling or something?

[@TuberTugger]

They just create buzz and then feed it. HOLYCRAP! Names amirit?

[@austrianmapper6300]

Ball Juice Of Zeus xD

[@Myemnhk]

Nah

[@tylerbeardshow]

You have 16 subs for some reason.

[@thegoonist]

well so basically it depends on the definition of a hole. the topological definition would give the answer 1. if you define a hole intuitively, not mathematically, as any entrance into the object's 'core', then it has 2 holes.

[@jiminauburn5073]

No, because then when you drill a hole in a piece of wood or metal, you would have drilled two holes?

[@trisk4806]

@@jiminauburn5073 So if you were to create a hole in a tree, would you say that has 2 holes?

[@jiminauburn5073]

@@trisk4806 I agree with you. I was disputing the OP, saying that you would not have two holes if you drilled a hole in a piece of wood.

[@bamgyuchoi3530]

came here because of txt debate at weverse

[@alltheboysloveleah]

Same I'm team one hole

[@KalleVonEi]

@@alltheboysloveleah team one hole rules

[@purplepurplepurple2162]

I am here because of the poll

[@potatomanW]

I explain it like this. If you cut a hole in a paper it makes one hole. It you thicken the paper, say a block of wood and cut a hole, there will still be one hole. So a straw is basically a super tall but skinny piece of paper with 1 hole.

[@Twigpi]

What does this have to do with astronomy?

[@idlingdove5217]

+potato man Star or straw? There's a difference.

[@jaysanchez4407]

Okay imagine a ball and you poke a hole right? And then you poke a hole on another random spot so does that still make it one whole? No it's two

[@potatomanW]

Juan Carballo unless you poke on hole all the way through or you poke two that meet in the middle

[@idlingdove5217]

+Juan Carballo If you poke a hole all the way through a ball so that it breaks on through to the other side, that's the same as a straw, one hole. If you poke a "hole" halfway through a ball, it's not a "hole" topologically speaking, just an "indentation", which does not alter the topology of the ball.

[@putteslaintxtbks5166]

One hole, two openings.

[@piolio7086]

puttesla intxtbks But ppl would think hole is equal to opening...An entrance hole/opening and an exit hole/opening

[@chaschoune]

Pio Lio: then people are wrong. If you make a hole in a door to put a handle, you make one hole that you can see from both side, Nobody would say they made 2 holes. The lenght / depth of the hole has no impact on the number of holes.

[@Zoran69]

Makes sense more than the video :D

[@jojojorisjhjosef]

How many openings does a doughnut have?

[@mostafaashrafelfeel907]

puttesla intxtbks well done you answered it in four words👍👍👍

[@azaz911c]

Love this channel. As a patent lawyer, I actually have to consider questions quite similar to this on a routine basis. "Is this two holes? Or one long hole? Or if I call this a 'straw' then is it implied there is a hole, and if I say there is a hole, then am I saying there's two holes?" The process of drafting a good patent claim is bit like doing math in words.

[@erikjonromnes]

Depends on how you define a hole. It’s not only a mathematical problem, but also a linguistic and psychological-conceptual problem.

[@Clynikal]

I agree. It would have been nice to see an application of its mathematical use. Otherwise I’m left thinking the mathematician has just defined it their way without respecting another perspective. I do however accept that there is just one hole, mostly because I would consider that if the tube was bent into a continuous circle there would be only one hole.

[@Clynikal]

I just saw the donut comment 🤣 I guess that makes two holes

[@kooraiber]

If we're talking about real world than It's exclusively mathematical problem.

[@FlamingFoxProd]

Me at 2 AM: I need to go to sleep My brain: No, you need to find out how many holes a straw has

[@purplepurplepurple2162]

a hole is through something not interested something, spread the word

[@singhanmolpreet5935]

It also depends on how you define a hole.

[@gabi1765]

No it depends on what is a hole

[@realdarcia2354]

Which has different definitions in different languages

[@Ham24brand]

A hole is a hole, weather it goes all the way through the object of half way through its a hole.

[@Ham24brand]

If its only like 1mm or less it might not be a hole

[@linus6718]

Yeah, you could either define it as just an opening on the surface of an object, or the entire empty space inside the object.

[@shivthukral1]

Your content is very interesting. Thank you for posting. I initially thought a straw would have infinite holes. Why? - A straw can be thought of as infinite number of 2-D circles stacked together - each circle having 1 hole. :)

[@whitewhitewhite2446]

One I saw a chair with a mustache on it and then a dancing water bottle went up to the to me to you and said hey, why don't we see some picture frames fall out to the ceiling tonight

[@whitewhitewhite2446]

a huge chunk from the center is missing, that is the definition of a 🕳

[@jamessmith4287]

Cash cab..... With

[@tomatomediumrare]

This is actually pretty close to what he did. The difference is that the correct way is not to add the circles (and it's holes), but to multiply the circle. Also the multiplication is not by infinity, but by the straw's length :)

[@mrnik.0]

Multiplication is just addition with extra steps

[@ICantSpellDawg]

1 hole is probably the most practical answer. The material used to make the straw, which effectively is the entirety of the straw - has 0 holes, but that material was formed specifically to create an aperture, which now meets the definition of "hole" The less compelling answer could be 2 unique openings, where the materials seems to open up And no longer restrict the contents of the straw, so 2 holes

[@jovetj]

You could make a straw (albeit an impractical one) by taking a block of wood and drilling a hole through it. One hole!

[@RealRupert]

The straw has 0 holes and 1 tunnel

[@kytacoyigo3988]

Yeah that’s true

[@Magnus_Deus]

Not a hole. A fooking tasty tunnel

[@kople5900]

It's just a long donut

[@spiderdude2099]

RealRupert topologically, there is no difference between a hole and a "tunnel" as you call it. If a circle with no depth drawn on a piece of paper is a "hole" then more accurately it is a hole with no depth. An open cylinder or "tunnel" is therefore a hole with depth L. It's less accurate to say a tunnel is not a hole than it is to say all tunnels are just holes with depth

[@deepaksinghairy7885]

Give this guy a Nobel

[@syver9]

0 holes proof: "Waiter! My Straw has a hole in it!" - Waiter brings new straw. Q.E.D.

[@VipulMehta9426787619]

Will Mack my underwear have 3 holes

[@kubadzejkob332]

Vipul Mehta That's 3 than it should have.

[@AngelRivera-mc8zc]

“QED” lol!! Nice proof

[@jimihenrik11]

Well, common sense makes you interpret the statement as "one hole that shouldn't be there".

[@Firestar-rm8df]

Vipul Mehta no, that's one hole

[@nurinsyirah6398]

For real I watched this because of txt debate

[@lizzy6514]

LMAO REALLY WAIT IS IT ON KZbin I WANNA WATCH THEM DEBATE ABOUT THIS

[@nurinsyirah6398]

@@lizzy6514 they debate it on weverse!! They commented on moa post and making a whole debate there 😂

[@lizzy6514]

@@nurinsyirah6398 Ohhh LMAO THANKS

[@michaelmitchell338]

So if I roll a single sheet of paper into a straw shape, a hole appears in it and disappears when I let go of the paper? I’m sticking with 0. It is a rectangle (l * w) with either parallel sides touching and the other sides bent into a constant curve facilitating the connection.

[@robertheal5137]

The reason why people "debate" about it, is because it is a debate about the meaning of language words, which is defined by the people, and not by experts. What is a "hole", anyway.

[@clementlo3263]

Mouth is an entry hole and the ass is an exit hole. Is it really 1 hole or two holes?

[@piolio7086]

Clement Lo mind blown!

[@piolio7086]

Riki but it has two openings, right?....and ppl just use "hole" to replace "opening", so saying there is two hole is not entirely incorrect

[@BigDBrian]

there's a topological definition for it which ought to be used in mathematics. but in real life its not practical. e.g. if you dug a hole in your backyard, the topological definition would say that you haven't added a hole at all.

[@BigDBrian]

Gustavo The question wasn't "how many holes does THIS straw have" but "how many holes does A straw have" meaning, if in your definition of straw you consider it an object with a hole, then the answer to those question would be 1, not 0.

[@sadhlife]

Does this mean that if i fold a piece of paper into a cylinder and tape it, I've just made a hole in it?

[@clementlo3263]

The question will then be can you make a hole in a pice of paper without poking a hole through it?

[@sadhlife]

Clement Lo that's a great question. yes.

[@zat1245]

Tushar Sadhwani No you’ve made it into a hole

[@davidb5205]

Taping the ends together changes the topology of object. You cannot change the number of holes in an object without fusing two separate ends together or tearing apart two ends that are connected.

[@vinodkumar-wm3oq]

Nice question, think about making a hole with modeling clay. Now you don't have the taping problem.

[@Non_Consistent_Potato]

If I have a hollow sphere and I stab an opening, did I make a hole? If I stab it again but on the opposite end do I still have one hole? On the third stab does it become three holes?

[@yodaas7902]

A hollow sphere has -1 holes. Stab it and you get 0. Stab it again and you get a straw so 1 hole.

[@oscidleus]

does a circle have a hole in a 2d space? is it wrong to assume it does not?

[@garychap8384]

Here's ALL the correct answers : Straws have one hole, topographically speaking - but only because, in the field of topology, a hole has a very specific meaning and we're considering the straw to be an ideal mathematical surface (which it clearly isn't) Then there's semantics... one can dig a hole in the ground but it is not (topographically speaking) a hole - however it IS still a hole according to the english language. How many of these non-topological holes a straw has is merely a question of scale... since the surface of a straw is not an ideal surface. So, the answer is likely to be between zero and trillions. Then there's the functional answer. Having defined the object to be a straw - how many holes does the STRAW have? None... it is a perfect straw. If it had a hole it wouldn't work very well. This is a logical statement based upon types, equivalent to asking whether a bicycles inner tube has a hole in it ... the concept of the item itself establishes the baseline of form, and this ideal conceptual form is then compared to the item under test. Then there's the material sciences answer. A straw has enough tiny (and, indeed, also properly topological) holes in it to lose water/gas molecules by osmosis, so again the answer is trillions. This IS still a topological answer, but one properly recognising that the straw is NOT some ideal mathematical surface as those weird beardy mathemagicians would have you believe. Then there's a pragmatic materialists answer... there IS no straw, just a collection of atoms which are held in proximity but never touch. The concept of holes cannot be reconciled with this view. Which brings us neatly to the Zen answer: Mu! Clearly one needs to first : - define a straw that we can all agree on. - define a hole that we all can agree on. - define a scale that we can all agree on. Only then, can a proper answer be attempted. To hold out that a hole is a strictly topographic feature and that we should imagine a straw to be an ideal surface - is a cartoonish simplification. Similarly, one could establish how many sheep can fit in a field by first considering all sheep to be perfect spheres... ... by doing so, we answer an *entirely different question* - and usually one which is more comfortable to work on. But yes, I'd also default to claiming that a straw only has one hole... and, probably, later get arrested for brawling with pragmatists in the car park.

[@JackRule16]

GaryChap minimum 10 minute writeup

[@MidnightBloomDev]

GaryChap Modern Sofokles

[@KahnDevine]

Stfu nerd

[@sirius9436]

Kahn Devine no u

[@KahnDevine]

Rubik’s cube 21 lmao kid go back to roblox

[@michaelransom5841]

there are two correct answers to this problem, depending on your starting point. As illustrated if the starting point is a circle then the straw has 1 hole, but if the starting point is a parametrized continuous surface in R^3 which curves back on itself, then the answer is 0 holes. The apparent paradox is due to the lack of initial definition.

[@itismethatguy]

But then what even does have a hole

[@nafnist]

@@itismethatguy That's the point being made.

[@gustavohermandio1440]

i have the feeling maths are over complicated for no reason

[@krishields2]

@@itismethatguy exactly. Holes don't exist. Holes are consequences of the geometry of the surface itself....

[@someoneelse4811]

My definition is that entrance = hole.

[@chuckokc]

Love the content. If one of the openings were sealed (plugged or capped), without losing the shape of the cylinder, would there still be one hole? It wouldn't be a straw. At that point, the straw would lose its function. If both ends were sealed, would there still be a hole? Does a hole require at least one opening to be defined as a hole? From a functional point of view, my opinion is the straw has 2 holes or openings. There is probably a difference between a hole (passageway?) and an opening. Is there a proper term you would use for the openings?

[@ojasdeshpande7296]

Oh 1day old comment on a 4yr old vid nice

[@gsuk28]

Hopefully my reply will be more useful than simply pointing out how new your comment is... He said that a hole is a 2D space surrounded by a closed curve, so I'd say that a plugged straw still has a hole (just like if you dig a hole in the ground - it doesn't only become a hole once you dig through to the other side of the planet). If both ends were sealed, I'm not sure - I'd say that's probably not a hole (maybe a cavity?).

[@Emanemoston]

A hole with only one opening is called a "blind" hole. Still a hole. If you sealed both ends, it would be hollow, but no hole.

[@uanonymous1090]

These people are over thinking these type of questions. The straw has two holes period! There is in fact one hole on each end of the straw. As you said if one end is sealed, there is one hole. Common sense does not exist in this world today.

[@gsuk28]

​@@uanonymous1090 I think you're missing the point of the video. This is about topology, not colloquial use of terminology. If you say it has two holes, then great, but mathematically, it has one, and that's what's interesting about it. It's such a shame if an expert teaches you something but you hold onto your misconceptions by saying "nah - my common sense says otherwise".

[@stevencheatham]

Does this logic apply to a topological sheet when bent and joined by two opposite edges? 0 holes without edges joined and 1 hold with?

[@KuyAurelian]

What if you define a straw as an area rolled up into a cylinder? As a hole is a perforation, and straws are made not by punching holes in matter, but by wrapping sheets or extrusion, they don't really have "holes" in them.

[@rhodesj1893]

They do... a through hole. You just created what is commonly referred to as a "tube".

[@Person01234]

@@rhodesj1893 But if it's a tube then it's debatably not a hole, for the reason mentioned above. there's a reason those two things are different words.

[@zabombolo8412]

@@Person01234 By rolling a sheet of paper into a tube, you break the rules of homeomorphism. A sheet of paper has no hole. You can‘t flatten a strawhat and make the hole vanish while following the rules of homeomorphism.

[@whatthefunction9140]

All I could see was a coffee mug.

[@paintingjo6842]

Strange, I was seeing a Klein bottle split in half.

[@whatthefunction9140]

Now I see a furry red rabbit.

[@lenn939]

PaintingJo You were seeing a Möbius strip?

[@alexeigarbuz8366]

Nice one 👍

[@paintingjo6842]

;P

[@Emanemoston]

Fun video. My first thought was "this has to be debated?" If you gave me a print of a straw and told me to make it, I would take some rod stock, cut it to length, turn it to the major OD, and drill one hole in it to make the proper ID.

[@chucks_dad9138]

what about capping one end and putting a hole through the cap. Assuming an identical cap external radius to that of the straw, and expanding the diameter from pinhole up to the inner diameter of the straw, would you argue that this hole ceases to exist once the diameter of the hole matches the inner diameter of the straw?

[@jamessmith4287]

I think a bottle has no holes because a bottle is a standing up disc

[@heinenrby7600]

I think much disagreement comes from how hole is defined in regular language and how it is defined in mathematics. In real life you can dig a hole in the dirt, but a mathematician would say it is not a hole, but an insignificant dent. Likewise the interpretation of the word hole can lead to disagreement in this conundrum. But the straw has 1 mathematical hole, that is for sure.

[@joeo3377]

Turns out "hole" is not defined mathematically, and by some definitions a real drinking straw that exists in the real world would have 2 holes, and depending on how you idealize the drinking straw it can have 1 or 3 holes.

[@jbaird0724]

I feel like a similar thing happens when using the word "theory." Scientifically for something to be a theory there are defined standards that have to be met. Problem is when most of us (and I'm guilty too) say theory, at best what we're describing is a hypothesis. In everyday speech people have "theories" about everything... No, no we don't, we've mostly got ideas and an occasional hypothesis. So then when an article is published regarding say gravity, and it's referred to as a theory, people misinterpret. Establishing definitions is paramount before a dialogue can take place.

[@zelda12346]

Depends on your reference surface. If you consider only the surface of the dirt in an arbitrary circle around the point of interest, what you end up with is what one may consider a "hole" mathematically speaking. After all, you can technically go through surfaces as if the yaren't there. A surface is just a set of points. It has no specific physicality.

[@jaronfeld123]

@Z-Statistic Good point. These foold need to learn some non-Euclidean Topology

[@chrismorse3862]

I think what made me decide on one hole is that the wall thickness of the straw is measurable. even if its just a few thousandths that makes it a side/face that you would use to calculate the surface area. so basically you have a cylinder with a hole through it, even if the hole is near the size of the outside diameter and the straw was manufactured by extrusion.

[@subscriberswithnovideosc-mk3up]

The straw has 1 hole, a glory hole

[@thegang1988]

🤢

[@fundemort]

a--hole

[@mccursedwallpapers7296]

**Winds up arms* *GLORIOUS*

[@thanhvinhnguyento7069]

69696 subscribers with no videos challenge wish u luck with the challenge

[@mystified2356]

I kinda see u everywhere

[@xNiDrOx]

so an apartmant with a balcony has one hole? Is the unused space defined by being empty or should this be defiend by the structure around it. One hole has two entrence/exit points with any dept, so 2 holes is ruled out

[@giantsweet1472]

I would say it depends on how the straw was made. Most plastic straws are a product of a long cylinder of plastic getting a hole punched in it and being cut and results in 1 hole. If a straw was made from a piece of plastic or paper that was rolled/folded and then sealed along the length, I'd say that it has 0 holes as it is not a circle/tube/cylinder, but a rectangular surface that has been rolled.

[@vindi167]

clever, but i don't agree.

[@paulparker1425]

Morphing the shape of the straw like you did is the most intuitive way (for me) of looking at the problem. A good way to illustrate this is with the similar question of how many holes a tea cup with a closed loop for a handle has. Morphing the cup into a toroid gives a strong intuitive basis for working out similar problems in the future.

[@SimGamerTV]

Does this mean that a hollow sphere with an opening at the top and the bottom mathematically has only one hole?

[@AlDunbar]

@@SimGamerTV from a topological viewpoint, yes, a hollow sphere with two holes top and bottom has one hole. Similarly a hollow sphere with on hole in its surface has zero holes. If you stretch it out, you will see it has the same topology as a disk, with the edges of that single "hole" now forming the circumference of the disk.

[@AlDunbar]

Yes, probably a better example than my doughnut analogy.

[@chazits]

@@AlDunbar similarily if you stretch the two opening sphere you will get a disc with one opening the circumference edge and the other opening the hole in the middle. So back to the straw (cylinder) , if you slit it lengthwise and roll it out it will form a rectangle with no hole , just as if you started with an unclosed circle it would not have a hole till it was closed.

[@invention64]

It is clearly infinite holes stacked on top of each other

[@TheJolgo]

Depends of ,,hole" word definition.

[@elementar2359]

in bed: ah yes babe, stick it in da hole the invention64: ?????? ahhhhh, you mean "infinity" holes...

[@padraiggluck2980]

If I begin with a piece of flexible material π units in length there is 0 hole. Now I bend the piece around until the ends meet forming a unit circle. Did I create a hole?

[@jkar4727]

Well, my thinking was that that depends on whether we are considering a solid figure (because the "sides" of the straw are made of some material that occupies space, so are not negligible) or consider the straw as a closed plane with no thickness to it, just a three dimensional shape. So essentially a difference between a sphere and a ball. One is hollow and has no wall thickness, the other is solid. From there I assumed that a straw, - if considered as a variation of a plane could be extrapolated as a sphere that is drawn out to be tubular, in which case it has two holes, - if considered a solid figure, it can either be considered as a cylinder with another, cilindrical cutout, in which case one hole, or a drawn-out solid torus, in which case no holes, it's just shaped that way. In other words, if it's a solid torus, hole is not a part of the solid torus, the solid torus goes around that space. So I googled the article and the argument made there busts the torus assertion using the definition of what a hole is, although it speaks of the straw as a surface torus, I assumed that it is a solid torus. The proof as I understand it could be visualized as a rectangular plane wrapping itself around the two-dimensional hole, which way of thinking ends up with the same result as having a curve circle a two-dimensional hole and then stretching it out into three dimensions to the length of "L", so it still encircles the same hole, except now in three dimensions. So how does a definition of a hole relate to consideration of a straw as a solid rather than a surface? I guess this is more a question about how was the definition of a hole arrived at, how the definition works in practice when considered in relation to 2D (curve/plane) and 3D (surface/solid). I kind of assume that slicing the thorus in a particular way gives you flat discs with holes in them, but why this plane for cutting the torus is the preferred one? After reading the article I feel like my initial assumption about a torus would only work in a non-eucledean space, but I lack the mathematical knowledge to work out if, how and why. Also, I am not good at math and English is not my first language so I could be mixing up terms here and completely missing the point, hopefully you can help me working out how and why. : )

[@MilaneseMoon]

Yes but this isnt even about math, its about how you define the word straw and hole

[@toxiq7399]

Pretty sure it’s about math.

[@freerunnerold8428]

Precise definition is done with math. But yeah I get ur point.

[@ima245]

PewDiePie 3 yeah, for me it is not a circle with depth, it’s a bended rectangle.

[@detachsoup6061]

PewDiePie 3 no this is about a part of math, the part of math that is about shapes, and wich you can use to prove things.

[@yurenchu]

PewDiePie 3 is right, this video is not really about a clever insight in math, but about how the mathematical definition of "hole" differs from the everyday (pluriform) use of the word "hole" in English. Sure, the topological "hole" is specifically defined so that it serves a useful and meaningful mathematical purpose, but this video doesn't show us anything of that purpose. For the casual viewer, the way mathematics chose to define "hole" seems just arbitrary.

[@jawkneeG]

If you punch a whole through thin piece of dry wall, that's 1 hole. It has the entry and exit but is considered 1 hole in the wall. Same as if you ram an iron rod through many pieces of dry wall, creating a long straw shape. Still 1 hole. But what if you dig a cave-like hole in the side of a mountain. It has no exit. 1 hole. You start another hole on the other side of the mountain. That's 2 separate holes. You then connect the 2 tunnels in the middle, is there still 2 holes or did you just reduce the holes from 2 to 1? Anyways it all depends how you're defining the word hole to begin with.

[@evelynkeane8979]

johnny_schwifty.soundcloud as soon as they connect then you’re back to having one hole as you can’t define where one hole is and whether the other is, separate to it, ergo it’s only got one hole

[@Nithinsuhas]

i would cal the first and second a "PIT" once joined it become a "HOLE"

[@texasyankee3512]

no a pathway or tunnel.

[@OwnedSoda13BBH]

johnny_schwifty.soundcloud what about ur mouth and ur ass. They're both connected with a long tunnel of an entry and an exit and people considered them two different holes

[@wessmith4366]

Johnny - You have TWO holes until they meet. Note that "hole" is simply a word, while the math itself doesn't change. If you apply your logic about the iron rod and the drywall to it. Think of this. When the "Chunnel" was being built, they bored from both ends. There were two distinct holes. You couldn't go from one side to the other without exiting one hole and entering the other. Once the two holes met, they became one hole. Here's another way of thinking about it. You take an ice cube in each hand, allow them to melt a bit, then you hold them touching each other and allow them to freeze together. How many ice cubes do you now have?

[@KevinCoop1]

If a record spins at 33.3 RPM’s and it takes exactly 30 minutes time for the needle to go from start to finish, how many grooves are on that one side of the record?

[@Goten1010]

Would it not be zero, since actual straw has an inside aswell? (and is, therefore, a torus, topologically)

[@Goryus]

I think a more casual-friendly way to explain it is to ask: "how many holes does a donut have?" You can deform a torus into a straw.

[@jonathan_herr]

Derek Neal but couldn't it be zero as well? Extrude a long rectangle around a circular path and attach it to itself?

[@paintingjo6842]

The fact that you attach ends together changes the topology, so no.

[@werner134897]

No, cutting is not allowed

[@davidb5205]

REMEMBER, YOU MUSTN'T TEAR OR CREASE IT.

[@USAboysp]

there are different types of holes and you must consider the second hole the torus surrounds so they are no topologically equivalent i.e T^2 is isomorphic to S^1 x S^1 not S^1 X R like the straw is here in the video.

[@finneggers6612]

I've never done something in that field but here is my explanation so far: Assuming that you take a piece of paper without holes. You have an area with 0 holes. If you create a hole in there, you have a plane with a hole but notice that the amount of borders that exist has increased by 1. Instead of having just 1 border, you end up with 2. This can be translated to any surface I assume. Second, I imagined a cup. Nobody would ever say that a cup has a hole. It's just a shaped surface. Now, if you remove the bottom of the cup, you will have a cup with a hole on one side which is pretty much a straw. Therefor a straw has only 1 hole.

[@pulsar22]

0 holes is also a good answer. Think of a straw that starts out as a sheet with 0 holes. Then you wrap a sheet into a cylinder and attach one end to the other. The sheet still has no holes, but now they inscribe a space inside it. 2 holes is definitely wrong any way you construct it.

[@lawganime9311]

"attach one end to the other" by doing that you created a hole topologically speaking

[@daminkon246]

topology is really weird, and in there, if you connect something you're changing the object basically. If you connect a cylinder, you're making something different, which is an object with 1 hole

[@ultru3525]

Why would the properties of a straw formed by joining two sides of a rectangle be any different from the properties of a straw formed by the topological product of a circle and an interval? Contrary to what your math teacher may have told you, it's the end result that matters, not how you got there. It's kinda like thinking the result of 2² is a square number, but the result of 2+2 isn't.

[@cdmcfall]

Great, now I'm wondering about PVC fittings. A coupler is just a cylinder, so like the straw, it should have only one hole. So does a T fitting, basically a straw with an extra hole in the side, have three holes or only two? Does a cross fitting, two intersecting cylinders, have four holes or two? If the bottom of a cylindrical, Styrofoam cup falls out, would the new hole in the bottom still count as an extension of the hole in the top of the cup?

[@jiama8461]

At first, you should show the exact definition of HOLE in mathematical term.

[@purplepurplepurple2162]

Yes because it is through something

[@forg7864]

My answer was 0 holes.. But 1 hole makes sense now

[@senkosan4607]

actually problem depends on definiton of "hole" and while question asking isn't mentioned anything so 2 is acceptable too cause answer of 2 fits our daily using of "hole".

[@asiamies9153]

But not correct

[@senkosan4607]

​@@asiamies9153 what?!+++++

[@redredred8408]

But it isn't right. We don't say CDs have 2 holes. If you just make the cd taller and less thick, you get a straw, and doing that doesn't change the amount of hole there are. If it did, it wouldn't make sense

[@purifiedwatr]

I literally just thought of the straw as a donut and went “oh that’s easy, there’s one!”

[@banjosambar]

1 hole, it's called a through hole as it has 2 openings as aposed to a blind hole that has only 1.

[@gerryiles3925]

A "blind hole", as you put it, is not, topologically speaking, a hole, at all...

[@mahikannakiham2477]

Gerry Iles That is, until you realize that objects made of atoms dont give a crap about the silly rules of topology. Good luck at stretching a blind hole in real life.

[@lemniscatusofficial]

+Mahikan Nakiham objects do give lots of crap about topology. solid state physics, biology, quantum field theory, and data analysis etc. there's a reason Nobel Prize was given for it.

[@lemniscatusofficial]

+Mahikan Nakiham they do. how many years of school did you skip. all?

[@noobstalker1]

So does a long tunnel with an opening on the other side have one or two holes?

[@MARiordan]

Great videos, thanks Presh! Another intuitive way to look at this is as follows. Imagine that you have a small metal cylinder 2cm diameter and 3cm long. You place it standing upright in a bench drill and drill a 5mm hole in the center of the round face through to the other face. (You now effectively have a "straw".) How many holes did you drill in the cylinder? Just one! This logical answer is independent of the dimensions (and material) of the original cylinder.

[@jiminauburn5073]

Or you have one piece of paper with no holes. You roll it upon itself and secure it with adhesive. Still a piece of paper with no holes, just rolled to form a straw.

[@danielbowman4395]

If you drill the hole almost halfway through the cylinder, and drill a second hole from the other end, you have two holes. Now if you complete the drill through, you have now only one hole. So by drilling a 'third' hole, you've subtracted a hole?

[@afsarmstrongfiresafety7460]

From an engineering standpoint, it's also one hole. It was a solid cylinder of material, there was a single through-drilling operation to create the bore, ergo one hole.

[@TheImzey]

Makes sense, but what if you would cover one of the ends of the straw? Then there would be one hole. What happens if you open up that covered end? The object has changed but would you still say it's one hole?

[@Kevin-dt9xm]

a straw has a through hole, which means a hole that goes through an object. if you cover one end, you change that one through hole into a blind hole, which means a hole that doesnt go all the way. by your logic covering the hole of a donut changes the number of holes the donut has. it doesnt. you arent adding a second hole by uncovering one end of it, you're just changing the blind hole back into a through hole.

[@victorsvidss]

Notice how the video is 4.20 long

[@dpage446]

Illuminati: Stay right where you are

[@fernandocontreras4981]

Yeet

[@7zagazoo748]

Notice how SHUT UP

[@markiyanhapyak349]

So what?

[@markiyanhapyak349]

And: no→ 4:20.

[@sarcasm-83]

I'm fine with all 3 answers. 0 - because it's basically a tube. I wouldn't say the tube has a hole, unless there's a hole to it's side. 1 - because there's 1 hole through it. 2 - because you could advice someone to put something inside the straw from 2 different holes. In the end; I don't care. It's a straw. Just don't throw em in the nature/ocean.

[@KuroDCupu]

So if I pierce a hole in that straw through the other side, making a total of 4 way in, how many hole does it have now?

[@jeffcarroll6553]

To my mind it has no holes and two openings, it is a hollow tube. A hole has a bottom which defines the term hole, as in dig a hole. If you dig a hole deep enough, or long enough you get a tunnel which is a tube. If you make a hole then that has no bottom, unless in your jeans or underwear, but the that is then not a straw.

[@Kevin-dt9xm]

you're describing a blind hole. there are blind holes and through holes. a straw has one through hole, as does a donut, as does a piece of paper with a hole in it, etc.

[@sehwag282]

Oh boy I win yesssss!!! I’m gonna buy mocha frape now and explain hole theory to Macdonald cashier let’s see how it goes

[@OphiuchiChannel]

Youre a champ 👍

[@markiyanhapyak349]

MmhH... .

[@adi-sngh]

@@OphiuchiChannel lol

[@KajtekKostnica]

How it went?

[@Sir_Isaac_Newton_]

2 years ago lmfao I doubt we'll ever know

[@ceejayrob]

This is how I have explained the 1 hole answer: imagine a sliver of wood as thin as a piece of paper with a single hole punched in it, now make the wood thicker, still only one hole. No matter how you change the shape of the surrounding wood, it will just be one hole, so if you had a very thick piece of wood, and then shaved off the excess and just leave a thin bit around the hole, you have a straw!

[@Durwood2k]

You only have 1 hole in a 2-dimensional space. Since we’re talking about 3 dimensions, it has two holes.

[@sidali.ainouche]

01 - We can close one of the two holes and leave the other open : so there are two holes 02 - If the straw is conical : we will say that one hole is larger than the other : so there are two holes 03 - What if the straw is Y-shaped : will we say that it has 2 or 3 holes (knowing that we only added one hole) : so the original one has two holes

[@jamessmith4287]

wrong, wrong, and wrong again!!

[@yn728]

Who else is here bcs of txt's argument?

[@trishasingh9839]

Me!!

[@purplepurplepurple2162]

I'm here because of the poll

[@brotherabrahamzamarripa9108]

It's black and blue. Or white and gold.

[@akuunreach3260]

I think the confusion comes from differences in basic language and in topology. Let me give an example, if we take a balloon and ask any average person, now many holes does this balloon have they will say one. If you ask someone that deals with topology, they may say one, as it's a common excepted answer. However topologically a balloon has 0 holes unless we poke one in it to complete the hole. In topology any object with 0 holes can be transformed into any other object with 0 holes. (Paper, Balloon, Cup, Fork, etc.) The same is true of an object with 1 hole. (Donut, Coffee Cup, Straw, Ring, etc.) So it really comes down to whether we are speaking in basic language, or topology. So both 1 and 2 are correct, we just need to agree on which system is being used.

[@TuberTugger]

All three answers are correct when given the right definition of hole. If a hole has to be intentionally added to a complete object, then zero is also an exceptionable answer. For example, if someone said, "This straw doesn't work. It has a hole in it". That implied that in language, the word straw is a complete object and any descriptor is in addition to that object. Just thought I'd help complete your point for all three answers.

[@miot22]

Derek Gooding I think the implication of that statement is that the straw has an [extraneous] hole, therefore it doesn’t work. Not that the straw had no holes prior and now that it does have one, ceases to work. So in that sense the meaning of straw already implies a hole to begin with, otherwise it would just be a solid stick or a stick with a deep depression (ie a long and thin cup).

[@netrogue1]

If I'm understanding you correctly, this is in line with my way of thinking. I consider it a cylinder if the center of the straw is not "missing". Therefore, my answer is that a straw has no holes until one occurs through the side-wall. By name, a "straw" starts as a whole, not holey.... ;)

[@miot22]

netrogue1 I don’t think we’re saying the same thing entirely. We both agree that by definition a straw comes with a hole. That means a complete and functional straw is an object that inherently embodies a hole. For me that means the identity of the whole object contains a hole. That hole is what makes it a straw. So for us to call it a straw, there must be one identifiable hole. So when someone states there is a hole in their straw, they are imo implying that this hole is extra to the one that makes the straw a straw. They need not describe the extraneous hole as a second hole since that meaning is implied.

[@rlowle1228]

So if you pinch one end close you still only have one hole. So how can you take away one from one and still have one??

[@jagg.h]

You really asking buzzfeed reaching out to people who actually know what they're talking about?! hahahaha good one

[@HelloWorld-ve2dc]

We should understand the difference between hole and opening. Hole is one but straw has two opening.

[@saltypotatochip4707]

I think this is the perfect response

[@magnitudefallout3944]

A hole was always equivalent to a tunnel for me, so this "debate" is really confusing...

[@graygraygray4454]

What is an opening that isn't a hole?

[@pinkpinkpink7717]

@@graygraygray4454 a plate

[@godzillaninja1644]

So weird, the guys I work with and I were talking about this the other day! Now I know what to tell them. Thanks!

[@pinkpinkpink7717]

lincoln

[@weicheravenue7881]

I never saw the Forbes article. But was reading a different one that used betti numbers to determine the amount of holes.

[@angelica9056]

coming here after txt's debate 👏

[@Rachara]

2:15 It basically takes 15 seconds to go from "Lets keep the party rolling and make math exciting for everyone" to "dafuq he just say"

[@Alucard-gt1zf]

Steven Warren all he said was the unit circle x length.....

[@blackrocket4382]

Steven Warren 'short' he said

[@joshualiley]

It's an intriguing one by the way that if you were to make a straw with 3 ends, you would say it had 3 holes since there were 3 places a substance could come out of the containment of the straw. If you then remove 1 of the holes, for example return it back into the original straw, surely it would now have 2 holes. Just like if I asked how many holes are in a regular t-shirt. You would say 4: the 2 sleeves, the collar and the base. If I sew up the sleeves, you would say it had 2 holes: the collar and the base. But it's still topologically the same shape as a straw. However, the straw having 1 hole totally makes sense; it is all the same space all the way through. So does that mean that a t-shirt really just has 1 massive hole? It's all the same space. Or does it mean that a straw has 2 holes? I think it always depends on how you define the terms in the question. Just like you can't assume an angle in a triangle is a right angle because it looks like it, you also need to set the parameters of the question. And therefore the answer is there isn't really a correct answer

[@musicfan9309]

You are interchanging hole with opening or orifice... and they are not the same thing. A Door is not a Hole in your house... Neither is a window. Your sewage drain is a hole in the floor to the city sewage or your septic tank... sure. Your Radiator has an inlet, outlet, petcock drain, and burp bleed-off tube.... but only ever has a "hole" if it is leaking. Words need to be used appropriately and correctly.

[@D3ltus]

Depends on the science. When I was learning to draw and make pieces in metal (by the mm), a hole would be across one side to the other (like a straw), a "cavity" would be a standard "hole" (like a hole in the groud). So the straw has 1 hole However when I say there's a hole in the ground, I am very much aware it's like a tube, and not a straw. Also depending on the language, you can either have more or less words to describe these simples things. In my native language there are "holes" and there are "holes from one side to the other" I know this channel is about math, but since this is recomended to so many people outside math problems, I thought I'd try to present possible answers outside the math world

[@gumtoonistbeats7842]

to me, people trying to say its 2 holes are like flat earthers, who dont think and only use what they see at face value. its obviously 1 long hole when you actually think about it.

[@michaelgeiss741]

How many holes are there on an 18 hole golf course? How much dirt is in a 1m x 2m x 3m hole? Are any of the holes that the movie "Holes" is named for actually holes? Could there be a hole in the definition of hole, rather than a hole in people's logic? Topologically speaking I should be able to eat as many donut holes as I want and never gain weight!

[@Mr.D.C.]

I love this comment so much

[@Tfin]

You wouldn't gain any topological weight, that's certain.

[@kirasmith1147]

Michael Geiss the answer to that question is the fact that there are different types of holes. It depends on the context.

[@michaelgeiss741]

Evan Smith Thanks! That was the exact point of my intentionally humorous questions.

[@bobbypederson]

Michael Geiss woah! Lmao

[@jeffc5974]

"When science is in the news, scientists are consulted." ...unless it is anthropogenic climate change.

[@MangoMotors]

and unfortunately a pandemic...

[@spaghettiking653]

What do you mean?

[@jeffc5974]

@@spaghettiking653 Who are you asking?

[@spaghettiking653]

@@jeffc5974 You - are scientists not consulted on anthropogenic climate change? Surely that's the field where research is most cited, right?

[@jeffc5974]

@@spaghettiking653 It was a bit of an exaggeration, but non-experts are brought on news shows way more than experts, and when experts are brought on, it is much more likely there will also be a non-expert to contradict the expert.

[@SummerCrowfpv]

Hers a question for you why are most straws only 0.25in die ?

[@2009priyesh]

I am not a math person, but for me a straw is made rolling up a rectangular sheet of paper or plastic, and since that sheet has no holes, straw too have no holes. Another way I think from your explanation is since you put a circle having a hole and then extended it to its length it's like putting n number of circles attached to each other so that they can form a length of the straw, which means there are more than one hole and it varies depending on the length of the straw. I don't know if I am correct, i don't know if any one have same thoughts but I think it's worth posting.

[@DragoNate]

I thought of relating to doorways. Doorways are basically holes into another room. If you 2 doors in one room, regardless of the size or shape of the room, each doorway is a separate "hole" into that room; an entry point. The room inside is just the space between the entry points.

[@brokenwave6125]

DragoNate You've got a very flawed concept of this.

[@DragoNate]

How is it flawed? I'm literally just sharing what it made me think of...

[@brokenwave6125]

Its flawed because that's nothing like how actual holes work. And using your flawed logic the answer would be 2, not 1. Doors open into 3d spaces, and aren't passages through planes...so that analogy is totally flawed when talking about topology.

[@fatherofdragons5477]

Opening

[@melancholyentertainment]

Exactly. A straw is 2 holes with a tunnel in between. Like a hallway with one doorway at each end.

[@cerwe8861]

It's like a long streched Torus, it has 1 hole.

[@Mike-739]

And then a DVD is like a flattened torus, and most people will say it has 1 hole

[@litete2512]

@@Mike-739 Good analogy. Defo one hole.

[@ojasjain6226]

Yuj

[@DiscoFang]

But is it more like a sealed tube that has both ends cut off? If you take a long thin ketchup sachet and cut opposite ends off will most people say it has one hole or 2?

[@graygraygray4454]

@@Mike-739 most people will say a Wiffle ball has as many openings as counted

[@nienke7713]

Not topologicallly/theoretically but more from a technical/practical perspective, I'd say it depends on how it's produced: If you take a sheet and roll it into a tube, then that would be 0 holes. If you take a solid cylinder and bore a hole through it, it has 1 hole. If you take a hollow cylinder and pole a hole in the two ends, it has 2 holes. You might even consider a hollow cylinder with a membrane in the middle, thus being like the hollow cylinder but requiring an additional hole through the middle membrane, making 3 holes. And you can add multiple membranes to increase the number of holes.

[@craigopperman5072]

If you could drill a hole that extended from one point of the earth, all the way to its exact opposite side of the earth and then jumped into that hole without burning up, what would happen when you reached the other side of the hole? Would you fall out of the other end and be pushed back into the hole by gravitational forces, like a human slinky or would you simply stop when you reached the other end?

[@NoTimeForThatNow]

I think we need a better definition of a hole!

[@LughSummerson]

A-hole noun 1. a contributor to Buzzfeed

[@NoTimeForThatNow]

Lugh Summerson bwahahaha! Well done!

[@koolboi9038]

A hole is nothing surrounded by something.

[@levihuerta9393]

Kool Boi like you head? Jk just a joke

[@CiuccioeCorraz]

This comment is what more people should have said. Even if it's not very clear in this video, "this object has n holes" is a perfectly defined topological proposition. Search for "homotopy between curves".

[@lolroflundxd]

I am guessing 1. But really, the answer is: "It depends on how you define hole". And no, we don't need profesionall mathematicans to explain this. Because you don't have to use the mathematical definition for "hole".

[@tennicktenstyl]

it depends how you define straw.

[@prasasti23]

I don't need sleep, I need answer

[@DaveKraft1]

Using the formula you provide, S X ("0",L), the 2-dimensional circle has "0" holes, since the L=0, and S X "0" = "0". You only introduce a "hole" when "L" becomes a positive number.

[@panulli4]

I think a more suitable approach for people who don't know much about mathematics and who think that it's two holes would be to ask them: "How short would a straw have to be in order to have just one hole?" This way you could lead their claim about two holes ad absurdum.

[@michaelsteinberg3272]

panulli4 Of course they could just say infinitely.

[@keithplayzstuff2424]

Best answer

[@fearlesscrusader]

Panulli4, I think your question is absurd because in y6our context, there's no such thing. To anyone who thinks it is two holes, if it were short enough to have just one hole, it is no longer s straw. The circle in the explanation is a two dimensional object, and I defy you to suck up a drink with it.

[@fearlesscrusader]

James, just like everyone else, you are living in Fantasyland and not in the real world. Haven't you ever seen a door that says "exit only"? Not every door has an entrance. Did you ever hear of P.T. Barnum? He had one of these extraordinary doors in his museum in New York City. It was designated by a sign saying "To the Egress". Look it up, it's a fascinating story. It might even give you a perspective on real life.

[@jamesbuchanan1913]

As soon as the straw is shorter than it's diameter it has one hole. When the length of the straw is longer than the diameter there are two holes. Where is the ad absurdum?

[@fadedvariable]

The math solution was more math than I expected lol. Once you said topology I thought you were gonna show a straw is topologically equivalent to a donut, which people unquestionably believe has only one hole.

[@thecrayolafactory]

what does a topological straw or shape with 2 holes look like? Would that be something like intersecting shapes with a more complex equation to find volume?

[@whitewhitewhite2446]

A hole on the side or a button with 2 holes

[@whitewhitewhite2446]

Split the circle in half and add depth to it could even be another example

[@litomatoma1177]

I'm still confused what if you make more holes ,and will it be the same hole?

[@crabsaresilly8317]

No