Can you drink a milkshake with a straw on the moon?

Question

This is for my homework- Can you drink a milkshake through a straw on the moon? The answer may include air pressure and/or Bernoulli's principle (because that's what we're learing right now.)
Thank you!

Answer 1

Yes, you can, but it would take more effort than if you were on Earth. The principle shows that when you use a straw, you aren't bringing the liquid up, you are lowering the pressure inside the straw and the atmospheric pressure on the planet pushes the liquid down through the container and up through the straw to make up for the drop in pressure. Since the atmospheric pressure is less on the moon than on Earth, but not zero, it is indeed possible to drink through a straw on the moon.

Answer 2

NO. On earth ,the milkshake is PUSHED up the straw by air pressure. There is no air pressure on the moon. The word suction sounds descriptive, but this is not what's happening. Notice how your tongue moves from the front of your mouth to the back when drinking through a straw. By doing this ,you're creating a partial vacuum in your mouth (reduced air pressure), causing the higher pressure outside the shake container to push push that eggnog shake up the straw, It's the same principle that keeps milk in the straw when you close the top of the straw with your finger.
A vacuum cleaner wouldn't work on the moon either.
A barometer works on the same principal.

An afterthought: Perhaps a milkshake is a poor choice of liquid for a question dealing with air pressure differences. If prepared in the earth's atmosphere, and then exposed to the lack of air pressure on the moon , a milkshake would probably almost explode due to all the trapped air exerting an outward pressure of approx. 14.7#/sq.in.

By the way, I've gotten some of those pseudoshakes at fast food restaurants that wouldn't come up a straw no matter what planet you were on ,or how hard you "sucked"; and they defy gravity!

Answer 3

Those who answered "no" got all their reasoning right, but came up with the wrong answer. You do, in fact, pull fluids (like a milkshake) through a straw by creating a vacuum in your mouth, which you tranfer to the straw. The resulting drop in pressure is maintained by your own muscular motion, so it cannot be filled by air. The shake is the only other fluid available to fill the vacuum in the straw, so it does! Up the straw it goes, and into your mouth. Yum.

So what's different about the moon? As everyone has pointed out, there isn't an atmosphere there. Which means the vacuum is essentially there, whether you are sucking on the straw or not. Not only would a milkshake travel through a straw on the moon, it would do it spontaneously! Your problem wouldn't be that the shake would sit there motionless; it would be trying to wrap your mouth around the straw before the shake exploded out through it!

Answer 4

From my understanding, NO. Because drinking through a straw is possible be creating a pressure difference between the surface of the liquid and in your mouth. On earth we decrease the pressure inside our mouth so that the atmospheric pressure causes the liquid to flow up the straw. In space, there is vacuum. No pressure, thus, even the best "sucker" who can only produce a vacuum inside the mouth can not create a pressure difference. Thus no milkshake.
Using bernoulli's equation, cancelling out the elevation and velocity difference, we see P1=P2, and work= 0. Because no liquid (mass) travels through a distance. (hence no work)

Answer 5

Good question, and only "ursa-something" got close to the answer.
No, you can't suck it for "ursa" reasons. That is correct.
... But you could not even suck through the straw: to do this, you would have to be in "open air" on the Moon. Since there is no air, no atmosphere of any kind, you could not survive, even less suck your milkshake!
In the module, where there IS atmosphere, yes, you could enjoy your drink, but Bernoulli will have nothing to do with it...

Answer 6

If you were in the pressurized lunar lander you could but if you exposed yourself to the near perfect vacuum of the moons surface, you'd explode. Humans need an ambient air pressure of about 15 psi to exist, that's what we have on the earths surface. Bernoulli's law has to do with venturi and carburetors in earths atmospere and doesn't apply to the moon (as far as I know). Good question though, it made me think.

Answer 7

Atmospheric pressure is irrelevant. Milkshakes are too viscous to transfer the pressure that way. It's all in the viscosity and shear behavior and your ability to suck. That's what makes it easier to suck up Coke compared to a milkshake.

In any case, if you're sucking, you'd have to be in some atmosphere, otherwise, you'd be dead, but the atmosphere contributes little in helping you out.

Answer 8

yes you can.

wait.. that above comment proved me wrong.. because the moon doesn't have an atmosphere, hence has no atmospheric pressure.

it has gravity, but gravity has nothing to do with the question.

Answer 9

Oh , lol , I thought you just wanted some Yahoo ! points.. I didn't know this was a real question. But now I am interested in the answer .So i'll be back to read later ..

Answer 10

You probably could

There is no gravity true but there is still a certain amount of suction you can achieve by sucking