Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
How Many Holes Does A Drinking Straw Have?
Shoshin1
Sentient BeingOceania Veteran
Just a bit of light (but some food for thought...well for me anyway) entertainment...
How Many Holes Does A Drinking Straw Have?
On the w hole my answer was full of holes ....
No strawman responses please 
1
Comments
There are two possible answers: two, one at either end, and one, because its actually a single continuous hole wrapped in a piece of paper. It depends on whether you choose to think paper-centric or hole-centric. I’d say both are correct.
I'd say an indeterminate number of holes, depending on the space occupied by the observer. Pass through the hole at the end of the straw and stop for a moment - another hole is before you, and another, and another, and so on until the far end of the straw is reached.
Usually we don't think of a hole having length. The hole of a straw serves its function of drinking. If you pinch any spot along the length then the function ceases. Therefore it is either an infinite number of holes with no length or one hole with length that could be divided into hole parts.
A straw has no holes. It is a flat, rectangle, rolled up and attached at the sides. It is a hole. That's its hole purpose.
Ooh I don’t know, the flat rectangle is what you make a drinking straw out of, it isn’t a drinking straw yet. The completed straw does have a hole, methinks.
Ooohhh …
Iz a modern koan?
Oh wait I think the answer is 'Mu' …
http://www.buddhism.org/on-the-buddha-nature-of-insentient-things/
:mimics drinking from a straw:
all other answers are fun but make my head spin
You may chose one
You may choose two
You may choose three
The straw does not care
I think it comes down to the question “has a straw got an inside?” If it has an inside, it contains a volume and it has two holes. In my opinion it has got an inside.
Since all is void, there is no hole and no drinking straw.
Hmm... I guess you'd be right there. I suppose if it was just a hole, it would have no sides as a hole must be a hole in something.
I change my answer to one bottomless hole.
one A hole's answer.
Doesn't a hole just describe an opening in something. If the hole is sealed at one end, it is usually considered to be just one hole. If the hole in something has multiple potential entrances and exits, that hole might be described by that number of entrances and exits.
All normal drinking straws are two holed, unless one end is sealed, or more holes are added, but in either case, usually only a two holed straw can function as a drinking straw.
How many holes does a garden hose have? Or, on the atomic level, how many holes? Matter is nearly all holes. The very concept of a hole breaks down, leaving the entire issue in confusion.
As we all know when we have straws for brains, no thought, question or answer is possible …
The question is the work of Mara, designed to confuse the mind by confining the response to one word and one number.
A more accurate answer requires at least two words and two numbers, and then a straw could accurately be said to have one hole and two openings. The Dharma is in the details,
What would the holistic perspective be?
I tried finding two holes in one straw but it turns out it is only the one hole seen from two perspectives.
Now I can say my day was productive.