You Are Not So Smart cover image

216 - Shape - Jordan Ellenberg

You Are Not So Smart

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How Many Holes Does a Vase Have?

There's sort of three answers that people give. Some say there are no holes in it because a straw, you can make it out of a rectangle of plastic,. Attach the ends together, now it's a straw. A square doesn't have a hole in it, and i didn't punch a hole inIt, so still no mole. That's our view. And others will say, no, i have added a hole. But to use language to describe it, you necessarily must say, i poke a hole in the bottom, so therefore i haveadded a hole to the thing. And now we don't know if we're playing a language game or we are playing a mathematical

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