system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Would it be possible to create a larger scale experiment of a straw holding water?

So if u put something over the top of a straw as it is in water, could u then create the same scene but say 10 times larger. Would this work? would the force of gravity pull it down?
gpt
Excellent question! The bottom surface of the water in the straw (with water above it and air below) would be an unstable surface if not for surface tension. That is to say, although it's in equilibrium (if the surface were PERFECTLY flat and it were in a hypothetical zero-vibration environment nothing would happen), it's subject to something called the Ralyeigh-Taylor instability which means the surface gets exponentially wavier and wavier until the air bubbles up through the water and the water falls out.

So the Rayleigh-Taylor instability would make the situation unstable, but the surface tension of water stops waves/ripples from forming on the surface, making it stable again.

So there is a maximum width for the straw, which you could determine experimentally!