I’m sat here drinking from my water bottle and am so confused as to how I’m able to pull up water into my mouth through the straw in my bottle.
Surely there has to be a pressure difference between my mouth and the bottle for that to be possible, but I don’t understand how I go from putting the straw in my mouth and not pulling in liquid, to then water going up the straw. Especially because you can still pull water into your mouth when you’re breathing (albeit not swallow the water at the same time) so the natural thing I’d expect to create a pressure difference, your lungs, clearly aren’t a part of it?
Is it my soft palate moving? I tried pulling in water and seeing what felt different in my mouth but can’t quite figure it out.
My housemate and I are final year medical students sat here having a crisis over how we’re doctors soon and don’t understand this, please help!
In: Physics
I’m seriously surprised by how many folks have no clue what happens when you drink from a straw. You use your tongue to fill the space in your mouth, then you pull your tongue down and back, which creates a low-pressure void in your mouth. The fluid moves up the straw to fill the void as atmospheric pressure pushes the fluid on the opposite end of the straw.
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