Without getting into a bunch of Physics terminology there are two ways water has potential energy: pressure (high pressure seeks lower pressure) and gravitational (this one is obvious).
A siphon can only work with an elevated source of liquid and an arching pipe. Basically as water is pushed into the descending portion of the pipe (via gravity) it creates low pressure in the tip of the arch.
This creates an endless loop where the high pressure water in the source sees the low pressure in the arch and *really* needs to get up there but just falls down the pipe pushing low pressure back into the top.
The weight of the water does the pulling.
As long as there’s a steady flow of water through the tube gravity and the water itself does all the work.
Think of it like this, a four foot long hose is used and marked with four different colors, each one foot long.
If the red section of the tube is full of water and then that water moves down to the green section, what’s left in the red section? It can only be filled by more of the water from the container.
Each small amount of water through the hose pulls an equal amount of water behind it. That’s because the space has to filled with something, and if no air is available, water is the only available option.
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