Eli5: How does our bladder avoid low pressure when we’re peeing?
In: Biology
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Define low pressure.
If you mean constant pressure that’s lower than atmospheric, you’d need to seal the bladder and then expand the bladder’s volume — that’s not possible naturally.
The bladder is constantly under higher pressure because it’s a balloon whose walls are slightly pressing against its contents (i.e., yer pee pee liquids). When you pee, the pressure is slowly lowered, but it’s never “low.” The size of the bladder deceases as the volume of the bladder contents decreases, so that regulates pressure.
When you have a solid tank full of liquid, the pressure gets lower as the volume of liquid gets lower. When you have an elastic container like a balloon full of liquid, as long as it’s stretched out, even a little by the volume of liquid, the internal tension on the material trying to stretch back to its unstretched size will keep the pressure pretty high. Think of your bladder like a water balloon, and not a water bottle
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