Editing 2775: Siphon

[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] have set up a simple experiment to test how a {{w|siphon}} works, using the gravitational force on a lower portion of liquid-filled tube, atmospheric pressure on the upper reservoir, and molecular cohesion within the liquid, to move a liquid upwards through a bit of tube at a higher gravitational potential. In short, the liquid passes over a higher peak to reach a lower exit. [[Randall]] has also mentioned siphons in [https://what-if.xkcd.com/143/ whatif 143] and in his book, "[[How To]]," section "How to Throw a Pool Party".

Siphons are commonly used in modern society (e.g., most {{w|Flush_toilet|American residential toilets}} are flushed by siphon action). Siphons should not be confused with [[#Trivia|capillary action]].

Apparently, even though Cueball and Megan have set up the experiment correctly, the water no longer demonstrates a siphon by flowing from the upper bucket to the lower. Cueball observes in surprise that "it's true," that siphoning doesn't work anymore. Thus indicating that this is a very recent development, and Megan remarks that it was honestly weird that it ever worked, and muses over why we ever thought that was a normal thing.

The punchline of the comic comes in the caption, which delivers a piece of ''Physics News'': "The 2023 update to the universe finally fixed the "siphon" bug." The joke here is that the entire complex and multifaceted system of {{w|physics}} in and of itself is treated as though it is simply the coded logic running the universe (or perhaps the sometimes unintentional result of various default configuration options like in a video game - see [[1620: Christmas Settings]]), and that siphoning (rather than being an interesting physical phenomenon worth studying) was nothing more than a bug in the Universe. It has now been fixed, somehow and for some reason, being considered a glitch and not the intended behavior.

 

 

{{w|simulation hypothesis|The idea}} that we live in a computer simulation is also prevalent in our modern pop culture, most famously shown in {{w|The Matrix}} (See [[566: Matrix Revisited]]).

This is a reference to radioactive materials that keep emitting energy (heat) almost indefinitely (on a human timescale). This is mainly a reference to {{w|uranium}} and {{w|thorium}} and their decay chain.

This is similar to the comic [[2115: Plutonium]], because {{w|plutonium}} (though man-'made', during nucleosynthesis) is used to power spacecraft. In that comic the title text has the same idea that someone controls the universe: ''It's like someone briefly joined the team running the universe, introduced their idea for a cool mechanic, then left, and now everyone is stuck pretending that this wildly unbalanced dynamic makes sense.''

Siphons are separate from a similarly counter-intuitive phenomenon of {{w|capillary action}}, where a liquid flows through narrow spaces (even upwards, entirely against gravity) in that a siphon need not be of such small diameter. Capillary action will also move liquid into an initially empty channel, whilst a siphon must be 'primed', by filling the tube, in order to draw liquid over a high point to ultimately always drop down into a lower container. Capillary action is caused by surface tension and attractive forces between the liquid and the walls of the channel; the liquid level will rise until the weight of the column of liquid matches the attractive forces. Capillary action can lift liquid higher than the maximum height of the "higher" side of a siphon with the same liquid, if the attractive forces are strong enough.