The height limit of a siphon

A longer summary: the maximum height of a siphon pumping water, at sea level, predicted by barometric pressure is about 10m.<p>But the tensile strength of water is nonzero (a surprise to me) and that is enough to allow much higher siphons if you first remove dissolved gases from the water.<p>The paper speculates that several hundred metres may be possible, perhaps even more. The paper also describes an actual experiment where they showed that a 15 metre high siphon works in practice.

Relevant xkcd what-if: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;what-if.xkcd.com&#x2F;143&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;what-if.xkcd.com&#x2F;143&#x2F;</a>

My summary: the limit is much higher than can be predicted by barometric pressure because of the tensile strength (&quot;surface tension&quot; of water)

So this is why I couldn&#x27;t siphon (gray) water from my bathtub on the third floor to water plants in the yard, not lack of moral fortitude. Great!

I love this classic science. Theoretically this experiment could have been performed in the 19th century!

This is why water is pumped from below pushing up rather than pulling from the top. But perhaps this will open up new ways to make water pumping more efficient.