#1632 – Slurped
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 12:00 am by Chris
Chapter: Comics
I would stick as many straws together as I could and then stand on a kitchen chair with the glass of milk on the floor. When the milk would reach my mouth I would look down and be disappointed that the glass was still nearly full. I think I saw years later on Mr. Wizard that my lungs wouldn’t be strong enough to lift all that milk at once.
Tags: lungs, milk, straw
even with perfect vacuum, you can only lift a liquid about 10 meters / 33 feet depending on air pressure.
I tried using a super long straw once, to drink some juice (or whatever it was) while laying down on the couch, but guess what? I couldn’t, because the straw was too long! And it wasn’t because I had stuck too many of them together or something, because this was one really long, flexible straw. It was as if nothing happened when I tried to drink through the straw!
Now, if the glass was higher than Little Biff, there might not be a problem.
Shenanigans! I endeavor to prove you can do this!
You don’t suck with your lungs, you do it with your tongue. Much stronger than the lungs. But still not strong enough to vacuum suck a liquid column 10 meters high.
As long as the straw doesn’t go to high up, I don’t think it would be impossible due to pressure.
Maybe due to friction losses, but not due to pressure.
For those of you who are thinking about it: no, you can’t solve this maze (using the straw as the walls).
Of course. There’s only one wall. There’s no inside. To have a path through, there would have to be two walls. I don’t think this is making any sense.
But yeah, either you can’t use the straw as a wall to a maze, or biff can’t drink his milk. MATH
But what if you suck it up part of the way, cover it with your tongue so the liquid doesn’t fall out, exhale, and repeat?
Nope.
Wow! That’s one a-maze-ing straw!
You might be able to do it using gravity, by making most of the straw below the glass level with a net downward direction and using lung suction to get over the initial “hump”…
…gee, thanks for posting this the night before I have two exams in a row. [/nerdsnipe]
Medical supply house, a borrowed credit card, sterile vinyl tubing and
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.
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MATH! It works!
Did this with gasoline once (*Yeeeccchhh!*) in a pinch. Once started, and the outlet is below the inlet, it flows. Now if I really need to do that (the word we want is siphon) I use a Jackrabbit Pump (Stanley used to make one), with the tubing in a housing and a roller run by a crank. Back up to release the roller. Same idea for draining the fishtank (another potential Yech!…) Also found (overseas, for Diesel toilets) that a thumb over the end of a garden hose could let you pump the hose into a Jerry can or a drum, using the thumb carefully coordinated with your pumping as a check-valve. Umm, TMI?
I never thought that crazy straws were crazy enough. Wow, two loops? Big deal. Where’s the crazy?
Sounds like you need some of these… http://www.vat19.com/dvds/strawz-connectible-drinking-straws.cfm *crosses fingers that the link works* 😀
Came close to this with a few dozen bendy straws linked together. Had them like a pipeline along the floor from the kitchen, through the dining room, and into the living room. Had napkins rolled up to support it from actually lying on the ground, and taped napkins around any leaks that sprung. Eventually it was determined a bad idea given that, given my seat in the living room was lower than the table in the kitchen (living room floor was a few steps down to begin with), I had to commit to the full glass, then I had to get up to refill it.
Man, I’ve gone so far through the archives that everything I want to say has already been said… by me.
Also, screw what you think Mr Wizard said. You could do it. But the trick is that you will need to take several breaths, and you have to plug the top of the straw with your tongue when you breath in, or else the milk will fall back down the straw.