Does a Straw Have One Hole or Two?

Think about that question before you watch the video. There's a hole in this end, and a hole in that end, but you can look through and see that they are the same hole. A compilation of Snapchat clips shows Dion and his friend arguing the matter in the classic style of college students worldwide.  

That took a surreal turn when they brought out the vase with a hole in the bottom. That won't hold water! Um, the vase, not the argument. The thing is, they are both right because "hole" has more than one meaning, depending on what world you are in. Commenters at Metafilter have various ways of explaining it the difference. From lastobelus:

There's colloquial holes and there's topological holes. Colloquially we would all agree that if you take a beach ball and stick it with a pin in two random spots that you have a beach ball with two holes. But of course it's topologically the same as a straw, which has one topological hole.

See also: Argle and Bargle.

(Image credit: Marco Verch)


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