Could a pipe from the ocean's depths create a fountain effect on the surface?

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Yes, but you have to suck again after each mouthful. I think he wants to make the water go outside, form the low pressure inside to the high pressure outside without changing the pressure inside.
 
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nasu said:
Yes, but you have to suck again after each mouthful. I think he wants to make the water go outside, form the low pressure inside to the high pressure outside without changing the pressure inside.
Having sucked water through a straw myself, I know that it is perfectly possible to do so without ever letting the water drain out of the straw.

Edit: You are right, of course, that there is effort involved in re-inflating the mouth cavity to allow water to re-enter. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
 
Yes, you can. But try to spit some water out without without ever letting the water drain out of the straw and without having to tension your diaphragm or inter-costal muscles to reduce again the pressure afterwards.:)

I think you mean to inflate your lungs. You don't inflate the mouth to suck water.
 
I think this is getting a bit silly. The basics of energy conservation will always apply and making up some whacky scenario involving sucking and vacua does not alter that. It should be an exercise for the student to find the flaw in every argument that doesn't seem to involve energy conservation. It's little more than a waste of time for people who have already accepted the basic principles and proved it to themselves once or twice and found the secret source of energy in one or two of these aunt sallys.
 
I think it's kinda simple , well here's my reasoning.
I think it is possible for a once established vacuum(vacuum , pumped out air and then the pumps disconnected) to keep on sucking up new water once the old has ran away from the top, the thing that would probably destroy this nice little scheme is what nasu and others here pointed out that in order for the water to escape the top to make way for new water keeping the same vacuum would imply not destroying the vacuum , but if one would make an opening in the enclousure higher surrounding pressure would inrush towards the vacuum and the column of water would collapse ,

using a pump to pump out the water from the column would probably work but then again the pump would have to use as much energy as it would use to get the water from the source up to that point anyways probably, the problem is I guess that the vacuum and water column is a satic situation and getting the water out from a low pressure area to a higher pressure area would basically mean " water climbing up a hill " work so there would need to be extra energy applied.