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moronthat
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The Oxford dictionary is about to change its definition of a siphon to remove the reference to air pressure as being required. Will a siphon work in a vacuum?
moronthat said:I didn't say the liquid was water.
A siphon works by creating a pressure difference between two points in a liquid. In a vacuum, there is no atmospheric pressure to push the liquid down, so the siphon would not work in the traditional sense.
While a traditional siphon may not work in a vacuum, there are other types of siphons, such as a vapor pressure siphon, that can function in a vacuum by utilizing the vapor pressure of a liquid instead of atmospheric pressure.
Several experiments have been conducted, including one by Italian scientist Evangelista Torricelli in the 17th century. He found that a siphon could not function in a vacuum, but it was later discovered that his experiment did not take into account the vapor pressure of the liquid.
If a siphon were to work in a vacuum, it could potentially be used in scientific experiments and industrial processes that require a liquid to be moved in a vacuum environment. It could also have applications in space exploration and technology.
While there are no known technologies that use traditional siphons in a vacuum, there are technologies that use principles similar to siphoning, such as capillary action, to move liquids in a vacuum.