Using a straw in a space capsule

[starfish99]

Suppose you are in a space capsule in orbit around the Earth that is pressurized to 1 atmosphere. You open an ordinary can of soda, insert a straw, and start sucking.
Would you suck up any soda?
One way of thinking: Yes it would work. You create a partial vacuum and the pressurized capsule forces the soda up the straw.
Another way of thinking: No it wouldn't.You need gravity to force the liquid up the straw.This will not happen in a "zero g" capsule. Besides, there is no "up"
Which is correct?

 

[Drakkith]

You don't need gravity to make a straw work, only a difference in pressure. When you suck on the straw you create a lower pressure in your mouth. The air pressure can't get into equalize due to your mouth being around the straw and fluid being around the other end of the straw. So the pressure of the air on the fluid would force it up into the straw and into your mouth.

Hold a juice box or something upside down and you can still drink it by sucking on the straw.

I will say you would be hard pressed to actually open a soda and do this for real, as it would become a big mess very quickly.

 

[Bill_K]

There are all kinds of interesting videos of astronauts doing this -- drinking liquids in zero g. For example . Although he doesn't have a straw in this one, he sucks the liquid in with his mouth, which amounts to the same thing.

 

[boneh3ad]

Suppose you are in a space capsule in orbit around the Earth that is pressurized to 1 atmosphere. You open an ordinary can of soda, insert a straw, and start sucking.
Would you suck up any soda?
One way of thinking: Yes it would work. You create a partial vacuum and the pressurized capsule forces the soda up the straw.
Another way of thinking: No it wouldn't.You need gravity to force the liquid up the straw.This will not happen in a "zero g" capsule. Besides, there is no "up"
Which is correct?

The important thing about gravity in making a straw work is that gravity gives rise to atmospheric pressure on Earth. The weight of all the air from space all the way down to your glass is what is pushing the liquid up your straw. In a space capsule, even though it is in a microgravity environment, the atmosphere has been artificially pressurized so that people can survive, so even without gravity, you still have that pressure on your drink. A straw would absolutely work in a space capsule.

 

[S_Happens]

In additon to what has already been posted, the only real difference is that gravity provides easy containment of the soda here on earth. An open (top) container poses no problems here. Like already stated, the actual mechanism of drinking through a straw is no different (differential pressure, supplied by gravity vs pressurized vessel).