# Does a Drinking Straw Have One Hole or Two? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 13, 2018, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479 "2018-03-13T12:08:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479/61 "2018-03-15T02:19:51Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Do I get to vote “no holes”? Its a flat object curved. Like a toilet paper roll, which is a flat piece of cardboard with opposite edges joined. No holes. Aren’t plastic soda straws extruded? If so they went straight from liquid to straw shaped. Paper straws were rolled onto mandrels. GaryM ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479/62 "2018-03-15T03:20:17Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > If Homer digs a hole in the ground in Springfield, and Wong digs a hole in the ground in China, is there one hole or two? If they keep digging until they meet in the middle of the Earth, one hole or two? I thought I had answered this but I must have got distracted and forgot. The answer is that it’s a semantic quibble that tries to play off the fact that there are different definitions of a “hole”, viz., (1) an excavation in the earth, and (2) an opening through some object. In your example there are two holes per definition #1 until they meet, whereupon they _ **also** _ become one hole per the more general definition #2. No one has yet addressed my question of how many holes in a donut. When we speak of a “donut hole”, are we talking about just one of two holes? If someone talks about a two-holed donut, do we imagine this to be an accurate description of an ordinary donut, or do we imagine a piece of baked dough with two holes in it, like eyes? The topology of a straw is the same as that of a donut. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479/63 "2018-03-15T03:23:20Z")
If your going that way, it would have to be three. This is in response to Fear Itself on page one. OOps ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479/64 "2018-03-15T04:18:08Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > … it’s a semantic quibble that tries to play off the fact that there are different definitions of a “hole”, viz., (1) an excavation in the earth, and (2) an opening through some object. One of those is my ass. I will let you know when I figure out which is which. > [@](#): > > No one has yet addressed my question of how many holes in a donut. When we speak of a “donut hole”, are we talking about … Medicare Part D? > [@](#): > > If someone talks about a two-holed donut … Not sure about that, but I know a three-hole donut is a pretzel. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479/65 "2018-03-15T10:54:43Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > Aren’t plastic soda straws extruded? If so they went straight from liquid to straw shaped. Paper straws were rolled onto mandrels. > > GaryM Doesn’t matter. Plastic and paper straws are geometrically identical, regardless of the method of construction. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479/66 "2018-03-15T12:50:39Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Doesn’t matter. Plastic and paper straws are geometrically identical, regardless of the method of construction. Yes, I realize they are identical after they are made, but the point was that plastic straws are not, or may not, be made by rolling a flat object. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479/67 "2018-03-16T05:19:45Z")
It would be trivially easy to make plastic straws by winding them off a mandrel. But it is enormously more cost-effective to just extrude a tube – some plastic bags are made by extruding hot material out of a circular die. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479/68 "2018-03-17T21:38:00Z")
For the drilling example, that’s two holes that combine and then become one hole. A straw has one hole, though we may colloquially treat hole as synonymous with opening. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479/69 "2018-03-17T21:56:47Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > If Homer digs a hole in the ground in Springfield, and Wong digs a hole in the ground in China, is there one hole or two? If they keep digging until they meet in the middle of the Earth, one hole or two? They are not digging holes, they are creating depressions. When they meet in the middle, they become one hole. > [@Chronos](#): > > No, a cup (at least, a properly functional one) has zero holes. Anyone who says “my cup has a hole in it” is upset by that fact. Unless they are referring to the convenient handle they are holding onto. > [@eschereal](#): > > I am young enough to remember paper straws, which were made by spiral-wrapping a 2" ribbon of wax-coated paper around a mandrel, heat-sealed at the seam and cut into appropriate length segments. Not very analogous to drilling. Still creating a hole. You have a cylinder in the mandrel. Then you wrap the cylinder, making a thicker cylinder. Then you remove the middle of the cylinder, creating a hole. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479/70 "2018-03-18T03:21:40Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Both. You could say there’s a hole in one end, and flip it over and say there’s a hole in the other end. And entrance and an exit, say. We do this with tunnels. Or really anything. Your home has a front door and a back door rather than a single “opening”, despite there being an unbroken path from one to the other. Your anus and mouth are usually considered two openings, rather than one, even though they are connected. > > Topologically, it’s a single hole. Human language usually doesn’t adhere to mathematical rigor, though. It should, though. Otherwise you wind up with discussions where people think that three is three times more than one. Also, a straw IS one hole. A portable hole with very thin walls. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479/71 "2018-03-18T04:10:26Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Also, a straw IS one hole. A portable hole with very thin walls. No, a straw is not [a portable hole](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9uFz8fSUN0) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-drinking-straw-have-one-hole-or-two/810479.md?page=3)