Empty Spaces

The difference between a dent, and a hole:

A hole perforates and leaves an ugly opening. A hole is the absence of something...a void. It either has to be repaired by pulling the sides in and stitching, welding, or patching (in which case, the actual hole still there, it just isn't visible). A hole may require filling with another substance. A hole in the wall gets a smear of spackle. A hole in the ground is filled with dirt or concrete.

A dent is not a perforation. It is not an opening in a solid object. It is an impression, a "dip", an indentation (thus the abbreviated ' dent') in a smooth surface. It may be a big dent, or a tiny one, but it is a mar and depending on the angle you see it, may give the appearance of something missing.

Whether a dent, or a hole - there is a space left that needs to be filled. Here's the deal. To fix a hole, part of the original surface has been removed and will have to be repaired using something different than was was there to start with. To fix a dent, you use the exact thing that was formerly in the smooth surface. It is just returned - pressed back to where it was before. It was never really gone, just out of place.

jm1/23/2011