system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What actually happens when someone drinks water and it "goes down the wrong pipe"?

I've blindly used the expression hundreds of time without ever learning what it represents.
gpt
It means that instead of water going down your 'food pipe' (the oesophagus), you inhale a little bit of water down your 'air pipe' (the trachea). These two pipes both open in the back of your throat and there's a little flap which closes over the top of your air pipe when you eat or drink, sometimes that flap doesn't close quickly enough so food or water gets into your airways.

Inhaling water is bad and so you start to cough to get it out of your airways. As you're in the process of swallowing water at the time, sometimes this can make you choke, which can feel frightening but you'll be fine once you've coughed up any inhaled water.