Will siphoning continue during free fall in an elevator?

[cragar]

Lets say I am in an elevator and I start siphoning from 2 containers. And then the elevator goes into free fall after it was already siphoning. I originally thought that it would stop siphoning instantly as it went into free fall. Now I think it will stop a little later. As the siphon is running gravity is doing the work, when it goes into free fall it is like gravity is turned off. So the force is cut but the water has momentum, so will the water flow until the friction causes the water to stop. I am thinking about this correctly?

 

[cragar]

someone has to have something on this.

 

[vin300]

The siphon will not work in such a scenario. There has to be a pressure differential at the top of the inverted U for it to function. So yes, it will only work until frictional losses consume all the (kinetic)energy.

 

[truesearch]

I agree. In free fall objects experience apparent weightlessness. The water would not run out of the hole in the bottom of the container.
I have seen film taken on the ISS and water is seen to 'float around' in the cabin

 

[pmacias]

Yes, you are thinking about this correctly. When the elevator is in free fall, gravity is essentially turned off and the force that was causing the siphoning to occur is no longer present. However, as you mentioned, the water will still have momentum and will continue to flow until friction or other external forces act upon it and eventually bring it to a stop. This is because objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force. Therefore, the siphoning will not stop instantly, but will gradually slow down and eventually come to a stop.