# The human body is like a torus **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 7, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206 "2012-05-07T18:55:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/21 "2012-05-08T05:49:38Z")
> [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](#): > > I remember Dr. Drew (from Loveline fame) kept badgering Adam Corrola on the point that the contents of the stomach were _outside of your body._ I once read that this is why an ulcer can be a really serious medical problem. It’s a bleeding wound even if the blood isn’t spilling on the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/22 "2012-05-08T05:59:22Z")
Personally, I think of myself as more like a Fiesta. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/23 "2012-05-08T13:06:54Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > The human body is more complicated than a torus because there are a bunch of holes–not only for the two ends of the digestive tract, but for our ears, nostrils, and all the pores on our skin. I would not count the ears or pores, as they do essentially dead-end, as far as open, or normally openable valves go. The ears end at the eardrums, and the pores end in microtubules at the capillary level. Same for tear ducts, _and_ for the urethra, which tapers out at the nephron level in the kidney. Genitally, males taper off in the spermatogenesis level in the testes and females, surprisingly to some, end in the peritoneal cavity. I had a patient swallow a Cantor tube, which traverses the body until it exits at the rectum, with the far end of the tube still hanging out the mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/24 "2012-05-08T13:12:44Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > The human body is more complicated than a torus because there are a bunch of holes–not only for the two ends of the digestive tract, but for our ears, nostrils, and all the pores on our skin. Still, if you don’t really care about that, you can go around telling your friends that the human body is not [simply connected](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simply_connected_space#Informal_discussion). Ears don’t matter, topologically, unless you remove the eardrums that separate the middle ear from the Eustachian tube. Same with sweat pores and urinary/reproductive tracts: they’re all dead ends, not pass-throughs. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/25 "2012-05-08T17:38:47Z")
Sorry if you’ve heard this before but a topologist is a person who can’t tell his/her ass from a hole in the ground but can tell his/her ass from two holes in the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/26 "2012-05-08T17:45:27Z")
One of my high school physics teachers would say this sometimes, although he didn’t use the word torus. I’m trying to remember why he brought it up. I remember it had something to do with radioactive particles passing through the body, but I don’t remember the specifics. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/27 "2012-05-08T17:49:28Z")
What about eyes? Can’t you get from the sinus cavities to the eye socket? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/28 "2012-05-08T17:52:31Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Sorry if you’ve heard this before but a topologist is a person who can’t tell his/her ass from a hole in the ground but can tell his/her ass from two holes in the ground. Perfect! There’s a puzzle/problem in topology called [Seven Bridges of Königsberg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Bridges_of_K%C3%B6nigsberg)which I encoutered in that _Mathematics_ book I mentioned upthread. Until I read about that I was still trying to solve a version of it that I had seen as a pre-teen and which I spent many hours (mostly in church – see [How did/do you pass time in church?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=197322)) trying to make work. Only after I saw in print that it was impossible did I quit trying. Do any of you remember such a puzzle/problem? It was a pencil-and-paper thing with a rectangle divided horizontally into two parts, with the upper half divided into two parts, and the lower half into three parts. The idea was to cross each line segment in that figure once and only once without lifting the pencil. I bet I tried 1000 ways over the course of several years! ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/29 "2012-05-08T19:14:45Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Perfect! > > There’s a puzzle/problem in topology called [Seven Bridges of Königsberg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Bridges_of_K%C3%B6nigsberg) . . . I don’t get it. Is the rule that the walk can’t end up on an island? I just ordered the book from Amazon btw, thanks! $.29 (yes, cents) plus $3.99 S&H. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/30 "2012-05-08T19:31:17Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > I don’t get it. Is the rule that the walk can’t end up on an island? I just ordered the book from Amazon btw, thanks! $.29 (yes, cents) plus $3.99 S&H. :rolleyes: You have to walk across each and every bridge just once, and you can’t cross the rivers any other way. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/31 "2012-05-08T19:32:57Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > I don’t get it. Is the rule that the walk can’t end up on an island? I just ordered the book from Amazon btw, thanks! $.29 (yes, cents) plus $3.99 S&H. :rolleyes: All I can do is quote from the wiki article: > [@](#): > > The problem was to find a walk through the city that would cross each bridge once and only once. The islands could not be reached by any route other than the bridges, and every bridge must have been crossed completely every time; one could not walk halfway onto the bridge and then turn around and later cross the other half from the other side. The walk need not start and end at the same spot. Euler proved that the problem has no solution. There could be no non-retracing continuous curve that passed through all seven of the bridges. The difficulty was the development of a technique of analysis and of subsequent tests that established this assertion with mathematical rigor. That pencil-and-paper version I mentioned had the same basic rule: cross each segment once and only once without lifting the pencil. Where you start or finish is up to you, but you won’t be able to make the complete trip! Either you have to skip a segment or you have to cross one a second time. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/32 "2012-05-08T20:08:25Z")
But that’s easy - unless you have to wind up on the mainland. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/33 "2012-05-08T20:11:33Z")
Using this pic: [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Konigsberg\_bridges.png](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Konigsberg_bridges.png) Begin at top left, and . . . Oh, no, wait, I see my problem. Bilge. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/34 "2012-05-08T21:01:52Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > What about eyes? Can’t you get from the sinus cavities to the eye socket? There’s the [nasolacrimal ducts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasolacrimal_duct). I’ve seen people on TV (magician types and what not) that can put a bean in one and have it come out their nose. Also various fluids, but the bean is more wow/icky. Last year my [genus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genus_(mathematics)#Orientable_surface) increased by one thanks to an extraction of an upper wisdom tooth whose roots went too far up and a crappy oral surgeon. Took about a month for the extra donut hole to close up. There wouldn’t be any problem if there were occasional cross connections between the alveolar sacs of the lungs would there? Who knows how many holes there could be there. Do all sinus cavities have just one opening? ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/35 "2012-05-09T02:47:01Z")
A heart is kinda like a coffee cup. Maybe that’s why some people are loved and feel content, while others always seem to have a hole in their heart that can never be filled. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206/36 "2012-05-09T05:21:16Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > The human body is more complicated than a torus because there are a bunch of holes–not only for the two ends of the digestive tract, but for our ears, nostrils, and all the pores on our skin. A porous torus? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-body-is-like-a-torus/621206.md?page=1)