system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If you plug a submerged straw with your finger and then lift it from the liquid, a volume of liquid remains in the straw; is there a maximum diameter of cylinder (straw) where this is still possible?

What other limiting factors come into play?
gpt
The surface tension of the inverted meniscus at the bottom of the straw limits it. For a bubble of air to move up and a drop of water to move down, extra surface has to be created against the tendency of the surface tension to minimize the area (\*).  At some point the energy required to create that extra surface is less than the energy gained by water falling and a bigger straw has  more water that can move down under gravity.

\* The contact angle between water and straw wall stops it becoming completely flat though, so the area isnt the actual minimum possible geometrically.