system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does the throat know the difference between food/drinks and air, allowing it to push the food/drinks or air to the right place??

I think the title says it all. What role does the Adam’s apple play in all of this? How does it “move out of the way” for food/drinks?
gpt
The throat doesn't push air anywhere, it is drawn in by the change in volume of the lungs caused by the diaphragm. The sheet of muscle which is the diaphragm pushes your abdominal organs down and expands the volume of the lungs, drawing in ambient air from the decrease in internal pressure.

Food and drink are sensed by the nerves within the mouth and the muscle cycle of swallowing is triggered. The part of the throat that carries both food/drink and air is called the pharynx, and it splits into the esophagus which only carries food/drink to the stomach and the trachea that carries air to the lungs. This splitting point is where the epiglottis is, a flap of tissue that covers up the pharynx when you swallow to prevent food/drink from making its way into the lungs.

At the top of the pharynx is the larynx or "voice box" that contains a pair of vocal cords which vibrate to produce the sounds of our voice. The Adam's Apple or "laryngeal prominence" is a shield of cartilage that lies between the larynx and the outside of the throat. It is not inside the larynx so it doesn't need to go anywhere to let air through, and it isn't part of the pathway for food at all so it doesn't need to "move out of the way" of food/drink.