Are you sure siphons don’t work in a vacuum?
Incorrect. It's all gravity. Water seeks its own level, and if the longer leg of the siphon is below the surface of the standing liquid, the siphon will flow. Atmospheric pressure has nothing to do with it (it does, though, for the short term one might suck on the siphon to get it started).
As an aside, this word has been horribly misused by the media recently, claiming oil would be "siphoned" from the containment dome over the oil leak in the Gulf. "Pumped" is the word that is correct.
Guess I wansn’t the only only to note both requirements.
This physisict needs to go back to screwel annd I am not going to use the spell chequire on this post, purposelful.
Thank God we have a couple of smarties to help guide the FR discussion on this and straighten us all out. :-). You make excellent points and I am sure you are both correct.
So what happens in a vacuum? Gravity pulls the water out of the longer leg, then nothing replaces it so the process stops? Or nothing moves at all and it all holds together via surface tension? What if the long tube is so long or the tube such a wide diameter that the force of gravity overcomes the surface tension...
Of course it would, other than the little problem of the liquid boiling off. You could fill the long leg in the liquid resevoir, cap the end, and lift it up over the lip of the container. It would work just fine via gravity alone.
Mainly because, by definition, there's nothing to siphon in a vacuum.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)