• SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    You could make infinite indentations in an object with zero holes. That’s a very poor definition for a hope topologically.

    • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
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      14 days ago

      And yet each indentation could hold something, like cheese or a kitten, so each indentation in functionally different from a smooth surface.

      Deforming a shape changes it, thus topology is a special case of specifically ignoring most aspects of a shape.

      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        But more importantly, calling any indentation a “hole” is a case of specifically ignoring the special significance of actual holes. You can’t pass through an indentation.

        • aMockTie@piefed.world
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          14 days ago

          If you were to tell an average English speaker that you were going to dig an indentation, chances are high that they would misinterpret your meaning.

          On the other hand, if you told them that you were going to dig a “blind hole,” I imagine they would have a much better understanding of your meaning and you would still be technically correct.

        • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
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          14 days ago

          That’s why we have the compound word “through-hole”.

          90% of important parts on living things are pockets and manipulations of surface area, two things completely ignored by topology. Topology is interesting mathematically, and has meaning for traversal and knot problems, but it’s not really useful to describe reality.

          • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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            14 days ago

            That’s why we have a diverse set of words such as “divot,” “indentation,” “pit,” “well,” and so much more!

            Topology is a component of the language called “mathematics” we use to understand, describe, and model reality in concrete terms.

    • blackbrook@mander.xyz
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      13 days ago

      But it’s a good definition if you are, say, putting a thing into each indentation. That’s why the two definitions are different.

        • blackbrook@mander.xyz
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          13 days ago

          You seem to not be getting that words can have multiple (even if related) meanings. When some science or other discipline takes a common word and defines it really precisely for their purposes, that doesn’t change the definition of the common word for all usages and mandate that all lay people use it only with that discipline’s more precise definition.