How does water rise inside a straw?

Answer 1

The simple answer is that when you sip on a straw you draw air out of it. Since there cannot be a vacuum, the liquid comes up the straw to replace the air.

But this is also happening: When you sip on a straw you cause a reduction in air pressure inside the straw. The air pressure on the liquid outside the straw is now greater than on the inside. Because nature doesn't like an imbalance, it gets pushed down into the glass and thus up the straw.

Answer 2

When you suck on a straw, you create a region of lower pressure in the top of the straw as compared to the pressure in the atmosphere. So the atmospheric pressure, since it's of a higher pressure than the top of the straw, pushes the liquid in the container up the straw.

Answer 3

You draw water up a straw when you suck the water (or air) out that is already inside the straw, creating a vacuum.

But more precisely, it is the pressure of the outside air that pushes the water up the straw. When you expand the space inside your mouth, you reduce the pressure at the open end (top) of the straw. The air outside is pushing down on the surface of the water in the glass, and when this is greater than the pressure at the top of the straw, the air pushes liquid into the straw, up the straw, and into your mouth. If you relax your mouth, the water will flow back down the straw into the glass, drawn by gravity.

To test this, you can place a tight layer of plastic wrap on top of your glass, and when you suck on the straw, the plastic will be pushed down into the glass.

Also, you can use a glass tube through a tight stopper, on a beaker mostly filled with water. As you draw some water out, the air above the water reduces in pressure, and at some point it may become impossible to draw more water out unless more air is allowed to enter the beaker.

Answer 4

This is capillary action. This is one of the processes by which the fluids in a tree reach the branches.

Osmosis at the roots allows mineral solution to enter the plant tissue.

Then capillary action aids its travel to the tips of the tree.

And at the leaf surface, the surplus water is transpired by the leaf through the stomata. Thus creating a (minute) pressure difference, allowing more fluid to climb.

Answer 5

Water rises inside a straw due to a combination of atmospheric pressure pushing down on the surface of the water outside the straw, which creates a vacuum inside the straw. This creates a pressure difference, causing the water to move up the straw to balance out the pressure.

Answer 6

It's not actually pushed up. When you suck on the straw you create a vacuum and the liquid rises to fill the vacuum.

Answer 7

You just simply suck it up through the straw.