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After thinking about it, using a hose to siphon water out of, say, a fish tank, is practically the same thing as drinking any sort of beverage with a straw (particularly a bendy straw).

My question is: why is it that when we drink from a straw, it doesn't act the same way as siphoning does? Why doesn't the drink just keep flowing out of the straw once you start drinking it? Conceptually they seem like the same thing physically.

(The things that jump into your mind when you're trying to sleep...)

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  • $\begingroup$ Water flows upwards in a straw , which has to overcome gravity .Whereas it flows downwards in a siphon .You can establish correspondence with high and low potential (water level).The answer of S.McGrew says it ... $\endgroup$
    – user182687
    Feb 24, 2018 at 6:15

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The key to making a siphon work is to have the outlet of the siphon below the level of the liquid being siphoned. If the outlet is higher than that, the liquid will not flow. The outlet of a straw is almost always higher than the liquid level.

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