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Have you ever wondered how gasoline is moved from the
tank to the engine? Or how the toilet·s water tank is filled
with water? And how water gets moved to the coffee
maker·s carafe to give you freshly brewed coffee?

The process of siphoning relies on basic physics. Gravity and

air are used to push water through the tube.

A siphon is a continuous tube that allows liquid to drain from

a reservoir through an intermediate point that is higher, or
lower, than the reservoir, the flow being driven only by the
difference in hydrostatic pressure without any need for
pumping. It is necessary that the final end of the tube be
lower than the liquid surface in the reservoir.

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A liquid moves from a higher elevation to a lower one due

to its higher potential energy, the energy that it gained to lift
it up against gravity to that higher elevation.

 
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Siphons can be most easily understood using the

conservation of energy. If given the opportunity, liquid will
flow downward with gravity to attain a lower energy state.
In a siphon, the liquid first rises over a barrier, temporarily
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increasing its potential energy, so that it can then flow down

to a level lower than its starting point, experiencing a net
decrease in energy.

Once started, a siphon requires no additional energy to

keep the liquid flowing up and out of the reservoir. The
siphon will pull the liquid out of the reservoir until the level
falls below the intake, allowing air or other surrounding gas
to break the siphon, or until the outlet of the siphon equals
the level of the reservoir, whichever comes first. Energy is
conserved because the ultimate drain point is lower than
the liquid level of the reservoir.

For a siphon to work, gravity and atmospheric pressure are

needed. The atmospheric pressure is necessary to get the
liquid to flow uphill to begin with.

 
 
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If atmospheric pressure were absent, there would be no

reason for liquid to move up the tube after the liquid that
precedes it. It needs to have some pressure behind it,
which is provided by the atmospheric pressure. The liquid
preceding it merely reduces the back-pressure by flowing
away.

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Gravity is necessary to provide a direction to the liquid flow:

the liquid flows from the higher level to the lower level,
reducing its overall gravitational potential energy.