Can there be such a thing as half a hole?

Question

What if said hole was supposed to have specifications. For example 6 feet deep. When you get to 3 feet is that half the hole? If so, what do you call the first 3 feet?

Answer 1

Yes, there's the right half, and the left half.

or

Half a hole is "H - O", the other half is "L - E"

or

The removed dirt is the full half, the space that's left is the empty half

Answer 2

A hole is not defined by a specific measurement. It either "is" or "is not".

Therefore there is no such thing as "half a hole".

Re additional info - Ah, then that would be different. Giving a hole's specificiations then gives a "measure". (eg, Like the fence post hole. The boss indicates depth, diameter etc.) So if the hole hasn't been created to fit the specifications it may well be half, 3/4 or whatever until "complete".

But if you are talking generally about a hole - then the answer would remain no (eg a hole in a bucket doesn't need to be a specific size to be recognised as a hole, it just has to exist .... and leak!)

Answer 3

Yes, there is such a thing as a half a hole. And your example is exactly right.

Here's another example: A guy works for a fence company and the boss tells him to use the post-hole digger and dig 20 holes for fence posts. Later the boss comes around and says how many done? It makes perfect sense for the guy to say, Well I've got 7 and half done and it looks like I can do 2 and a half holes per hour.

Or the Boss checks back later and says, Hey, this one's only half a hole. What happened? Oh, the machine broke.

Obviously. Who are these people who can't see that?

Of course any hole is a hole. CONTEXT is what defines half a hole.

Answer 4

A hole does have a specification--the lack of material. There cannot be the lack of "half the material" because in this context "material" is the whole of the answer.

Answer 5

I suppose if you define limits and parameters, you could better explain any number of stances.

If you define a hole the ground as "Void of earth" but not air. You could fill half the 'hole' and say the 'void' is half of it's original size.

Answer 6

A half a hole is still a hole. However, a half a whole is one half of the whole.

Answer 7

Thats like breaking a crumb in half,do you get a half a crumb?

Answer 8

There must be, because:

2 halves make a whole!