this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
1011 points (100.0% liked)

Science Memes

15488 readers
2352 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 109 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think it would still techically be more hole since a larger total area would be hole.

I would be fewer holes, though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

But there’s more hole per hole

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

More cheese -> more holes

More holes -> less cheese

Therefore: More cheese -> less cheese

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

One of my friends is a Taurus as well. He's a car.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

How many holes does he have?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago

At least 5. I'm unwilling to do a more thorough count, tho.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

what an interesting looking Tesla

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The average person is a straw.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This is a strawman argument.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

I love you for this!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not really, they're some sort of tube, but they don't classify as straws

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes! You can call me.... The lawnmower man!

(I'm seriously dating myself with that reference)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I remember thinking this was top notch graphics in 1992.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

It was uncanny and disturbing back then. It's uncanny, disturbing, and hilarious now.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The human body is just a series of tubes.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago

The internet and I have that in common, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

A circle is a plane folded on itself so the answer is technically 0 holes. But first what is a hole?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

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.”

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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:

https://youtu.be/ymF1bp-qrjU

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

And here's Michael from VSauce talking about the topic:

https://youtu.be/egEraZP9yXQ

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (7 children)

a torus is not homotopic to a straw though unless you take the straw and glue it at its ends. a straw is homotopic to a circle, a torus is homotopic to product of two circles, Baldur's gate is homotopic to a disk which is homotopic to a point unless we are talking about the game storage medium which used to be a CD which is also homotopic to a circle

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

You are talking about a straw of zero wall thickness right? A real straw should be homo-whatever to a torus

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

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:

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

It's what I identify as on Grindr

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

topologically same

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Reminds me of the old "Are there more doors or wheels in the world?" question

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

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

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

The answer is "yes".

[–] Deathray5 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

What size does a hole need to be to be a hole

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

In theory, the smallest hole possible would be a ring of atoms combined into a molecule with an empty center

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

benzene got that nanopussy

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That is one way of putting it, a bit crude though....

[–] Deathray5 3 points 3 weeks ago

I imagine you with a monocle and a top hat

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Twice as big as half a hole, obviously.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

Make sure you're distinguishing between a circle and a disc.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

What specifically constitutes a hole is somewhat ambiguous, but if you pull on the thread a bit, you'll probably agree that it's a topological quality and that homotopy groups and homology are good candidates. The most grounded way to approach the topic is with simplicial homology.

load more comments
view more: next ›