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Can we settle this: how many holes does a straw have? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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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?

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[–] 14 points 3 years ago (2 children)

A hollow cylinder has a single hole, with two openings. A hole can be open on one end only (e.g., a well is a hole in the ground), or it can have multiple openings (e.g., a straw has a hole with two openings).

If one cannot immediately tell whether two openings are connected to one another, then one assumes they are not; e.g., if you see a well in Florida you don't assume it is the opening of a hole that extends to connect to another opening in Australia.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Not a native speaker, but doesn't "hole" refer to an opening? The structure which connects two openings, but is itself not connected to the outside would be called cave, or tunnel.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago

    It usually does, however, there are cases where a hole can have two openings. For example, there's a saying/idiom about digging a hole through the earth and ending up in china/australia/etc. It would be confusing to say that you "dug two holes" to China, you would only say that you "dug a hole" to China. "Tunnel" is definitely more precise here, though it would be odd to refer to the openings in a drinking straw as a "tunnel"

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