Editing 2658: Coffee Cup Holes

{{comic
| number    = 2658
| date      = August 12, 2022
| title     = Coffee Cup Holes
| image     = coffee_cup_holes.png
| titletext = Theoretical physicist: At the Planck length, uncountably many.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CAFFEINE MOLECULE WITH A HOLE DRILLED IN ITS SIDE. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic depicts multiple people in different fields of study answering the question “How many holes are there in a coffee cup?” This question can have multiple interpretations, in particular concerning the definition of a hole.

[[Ponytail]], a {{w|topology|topologist}}, states the coffee cup belongs in the genus of one hole. A common joke is that topologists can’t tell the difference between a coffee cup and a donut since they’re homeomorphic to each other — they have the same genus. <!-- From the point of view of (reduced) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homology_(mathematics)#Informal_examples homology] (in this case also homotopy), the coffee cup has one 1 dimensional hole and no other dimensional holes. Hence.... -- Way too jargony, topology is too obscure to reasonably ask this of readers. --> From the topologist's point of view, the coffee cup definitely has one hole. See [[2625: Field Topology]] for more information about topology. 

[[Hairy]], a normal person, asks for clarification about whether the opening at the top counts as a hole. This shows flaws in the question, which suffers from the mathematically imprecise, ambiguous common usage of the word hole. Topologists would refer to the opening as a concavity, not a hole, and while they consider such geometrical properties generally outside their field, most practical applications of topolgy do involve geometrical components.{{cn}}

[[Hairbun]], a philosopher, answers the question with an elucidating counter-question, considering a hypothetical scenario. Drilling a new hole should increase the number of holes by one, and after the hole has been drilled, a common teacup or mug has two holes according to topologists. Since drilling a hole increases the number of holes by one, the philosopher's question requires the original questioner to reveal the answer to their own question.

[[Cueball]], a chemist, looks at the cup on a molecular level, which naturally means it has lots and lots of holes: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10<sup>21</sup> or 1 sextillion) “in the caffeine alone.” The implication is that there are more in the cup itself, depending on what material it’s made out of. Also, the coffee itself could have other holes, depending on the type of coffee. For example, espresso contains significant amounts of niacin and riboflavin, each of which has at least one hole in its chemical structure. However, this ignores the fact that bonds are not discrete sticks as portrayed in many molecular models. The "holes" in the middle of a caffeine molecule are not completely empty but instead merely have lower electron densities/probabilities. In a {{w|space-filling model}}, a caffeine molecule has zero holes. So the point-cloud duality of electron orbitals and bonds might not satisfy a topologist's, normal person's, or philosopher's criteria for a connected substrate in which holes may be formed.

In the title text, the theoretical physicist looks even deeper, at a subatomic level. Since fundamental particle interaction is governed by fundamental forces and collision instead of tensile or ductile solid connectedness, the physicists posit that any definition allowing a single hole would potentially produce a number of holes akin to the factorial of the number of particles in the universe, or at least within the cup's {{w|light cone}}, which is a number impractical to accurately count, but not technically uncountably many, not even Aleph_0 many.

Part of the joke is that all five methods of inquiry don't discern between a cup (as described) and a mug (as depicted), the original cliché being that topologists are unusual because they don't.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[The first panel has text only. The "Q:" below is a large letter Q representing a question, not a character name.]
:Q:
:How many holes are there in a coffee cup?

:[Each of the next four panels has a caption at the top to indicate the kind of person answering the question.]
:Caption: Topologist
:[Ponytail stands holding a coffee mug.]
:Ponytail: One.

:Caption: Normal person
:[Hairy stands to the right of Ponytail, holding a coffee mug at an angle to look into it.]
:Hairy: IDK, does the opening count as a hole?

:Caption: Philosopher
:[Hairbun is shown in closeup, with two drawings of coffee mugs to her left.]
:Hairbun: To answer that question, consider another: If we drill a hole in the side, how many holes are there now?

:Caption: Chemist
:[Cueball stands with a drawing of a caffeine molecule above him and to the right.]
:Cueball: 10<sup>21</sup> in the caffeine alone

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]