this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 days ago (19 children)

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 4 points 2 days ago (18 children)

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.

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] kogasa@programming.dev 6 points 2 days ago

Topology is immensely useful to describe reality.

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