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
The drink is being pushed down equally by atmospheric pressure, inside and outside the straw. You suck the atmosphere out of the straw by inhaling, so there’s nothing keeping it down. The atmospheric pressure on the surrounding drink therefore pushes the liquid up the straw and into your mouth.
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