How Does a Siphon Work?
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What is it?
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A siphon is a long tube that drains a liquid. The container the liquid is drained from must be higher than the container it is being emptied into. The flow of this liquid is caused by a difference in hydrostatic pressure, which allows the liquid to be drained without being pumped.
Hydrostatic pressure
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Hydrostatic pressure is the pressure that a liquid exerts resulting from its potential energy and by ignoring its kinetic energy. This is used to separate true pressure from osmotic pressure, the difference in the pressure of a column of fluid that has been caused by the effect of gravity.
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How it works
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To start a siphon one must first fill it, or prime it. Once the siphon is primed, atmospheric pressure acts on both ends. The longer leg, the lower end, has greater weight, thus causing gravity to drain the liquid and maintain the pressure. At this point, nothing else needs to be done. Gravity will continue pulling the liquid through the siphon until something breaks it, causing cavitation, or until the outlet equals the level of the container.
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Comments
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this helped my doing science homework! :D
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rovers1
Nov 04, 2009
regards the how does a siphon work. we have just put some drainage pipes 9siphon) in a sports field, there is however still a bit of standing water on the field, does it take time to work if so how long. Also the outlet ends of the pipes appear dry even though we have had a bit of rain lately
