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Drinking straw

 
Drinking Straw

 
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Drinking straw
 
 
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A drinking straw is a short tube used for transferring a liquid
Liquid

Liquid is one of the principal states of matter. A liquid is a fluid that has the particles loose and can freely form a distinct surface at the boundaries of its bulk material....
 - usually a drink from one location to another (such as from a cup, to one's mouth). The earliest drinking straws were hollow stems of grass, literally made of straw
Straw

Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry wikt:stalk of a cereal plant, after the grain or seed has been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat....
. A thin tube of plastic
Plastic

Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic organic chemistry solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products....
 (such as polypropylene
Polypropylene

Polypropylene or polypropene is a thermoplastic polymer, made by the chemical industry and used in a wide variety of applications, including packaging, textiles , stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers of various types, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive components, and polymer banknotes....
 and polystyrene
Polystyrene

Polystyrene , sometimes abbreviated PS, is an Aromaticity polymer made from the aromatic monomer styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that is commercially manufactured from petroleum by the chemical industry....
) or other material, straight or with an accordion
Accordion

The accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox....
-like living hinge
Living hinge

A living hinge is a thin flexible hinge made from plastic that joins two rigid plastic parts together, allowing them to bend along the line of the hinge....
, it is employed by being held with one end in the mouth
Mouth

The mouth, buccal cavity, or oral cavity is the first portion of the alimentary canal that receives food and begins digestion by mechanically breaking up the solid food particles into smaller pieces and mixing them with saliva....
 and another end in the drink.






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A drinking straw is a short tube used for transferring a liquid
Liquid

Liquid is one of the principal states of matter. A liquid is a fluid that has the particles loose and can freely form a distinct surface at the boundaries of its bulk material....
 - usually a drink from one location to another (such as from a cup, to one's mouth). The earliest drinking straws were hollow stems of grass, literally made of straw
Straw

Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry wikt:stalk of a cereal plant, after the grain or seed has been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat....
. A thin tube of plastic
Plastic

Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic organic chemistry solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products....
 (such as polypropylene
Polypropylene

Polypropylene or polypropene is a thermoplastic polymer, made by the chemical industry and used in a wide variety of applications, including packaging, textiles , stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers of various types, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive components, and polymer banknotes....
 and polystyrene
Polystyrene

Polystyrene , sometimes abbreviated PS, is an Aromaticity polymer made from the aromatic monomer styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that is commercially manufactured from petroleum by the chemical industry....
) or other material, straight or with an accordion
Accordion

The accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox....
-like living hinge
Living hinge

A living hinge is a thin flexible hinge made from plastic that joins two rigid plastic parts together, allowing them to bend along the line of the hinge....
, it is employed by being held with one end in the mouth
Mouth

The mouth, buccal cavity, or oral cavity is the first portion of the alimentary canal that receives food and begins digestion by mechanically breaking up the solid food particles into smaller pieces and mixing them with saliva....
 and another end in the drink. Muscular
MUSCLE

MUSCLE is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.MUSCLE is integrated into UGENE bioinformatics tool as a plugin....
 action reduces air pressure
Atmospheric pressure

Atmospheric pressure is sometimes defined as the force per unit area exerted against a surface by the weight of air above that surface at any given point in the Earth's atmosphere....
 in the mouth, whereupon atmospheric pressure
Atmospheric pressure

Atmospheric pressure is sometimes defined as the force per unit area exerted against a surface by the weight of air above that surface at any given point in the Earth's atmosphere....
 forces the drink
Drink

A drink, or beverage, is a liquid specifically prepared for human consumption. In addition to basic needs, beverages form part of the culture of human society....
 up the straw. The first straws were made by the Sumerians, and used for drinking beer
Beer

Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and Fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal?the most common of which is malted barley, although wheat, maize , and rice are widely used....
 (as to avoid the solid byproducts of fermentation
Fermentation (food)

Fermentation in food processing typically refers to the conversion of sugar to alcohol using yeast under anaerobic conditions. A more general definition of fermentation is the chemical conversion of carbohydrates into alcohols or acids....
). Argentines
Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
 and their neighbors use a similar metallic device called bombilla that acts as both a straw and sieve for drinking mate
Yerba mate

Yerba mate , Ilex paraguariensis, is a species of holly native to subtropical South America in Argentina, southern Chile, eastern Paraguay, western Uruguay and southern Brazil....
 tea. The modern drinking straw was patented in 1888 by Marvin C. Stone
Marvin Stone

Marvin Chester Stone was the inventor of the modern drinking straw.He lived in Washington DC most of his life, until his death in 1898.The first drinking straws were made of dry, hollow, rye grass....
.

Early paper straws had a narrow bore
Lumen (anatomy)

A lumen in biology is the inside space of a tubular structure, such as an artery or intestine. By extension, a lumen can also be the inside space of a cellular component or structure, such as the endoplasmic reticulum....
 similar to that of the grass stems then in common use. It was common to use two of them, to reduce the effort needed to take each sip. Modern plastic straws are made with a larger bore, so only one is needed for comfortable drinking.

One particular advantage of using a straw when drinking is the reduction of tooth decay. Many soft drinks have acidic properties, and using a straw reduces the liquid contact with the teeth, reducing tooth decay and the risk of cavities.

Types of drinking straws

  • A basic drinking straw is straight for the full length.
  • A bendable straw or "bendy straw" has a concertina-type hinge near the top for convenience.
  • A "crazy" straw is hard plastic and has a number of twists and turns at the top. When liquid is sucked through the straw, it quickly flows through the winding path, creating a mildly entertaining spectacle.
  • A spoon straw features a cut-away shape at one end that functions as a miniature spoon this invention, although it is unclear about who is truly the inventor has been attributed to John Wesley Groves. It is intended for slush drinks
    Slush (beverage)

    Slush is a generic term for a flavored frozen drink. In general, slush drinks are made by freezing a sugared liquid while constantly stirring it....
    .
  • Candy straws, such as licorice straws (or lico-straws), are made from some type of chewy candy.
  • A miniature straw often comes attached to a drink box.
  • A wide straw is used for sipping bubble tea
    Bubble tea

    Bubble tea Arelene, also called "Boba" tea, is a tea drink containing gelatinous tapioca pearls. It originated in Taiwan in the 1980s, spread to nearby East Asian countries, and migrated to Canada before spreading to Chinatown in New York City, then to various spots throughout the West Coast of the United States....
    . Also for stirring.
  • "Sanitary" straws are individually wrapped to avoid contamination. Straws were originally marketed as a means for people to reduce the risk of contracting an illness from improperly washed containers, glasses, or cups.
  • The Sipahh
    Sipahh

    Sipahh Milk Flavouring Straws are a range of flavouring straws that turn plain milk into flavoured milk as the milk is sipped through the straw....
    . A drinking straw that contains flavoured tapioca beads that dissolve as milk passes over them to add colour and flavour.
  • A recent addition to the straw family is the cereal straw, such as the ones made by Kelloggs.
  • Polypropylene is becoming favored over polystyrene for manufacturing plastic drinking straws as polystyrene is brittle and tends to crack easily. It is also denser than water, causing straws to sink when placed into beverages. Polypropylene straws, by contrast, are much more durable and do not sink.
  • Special "color-changer" straws given with meals at Friendly's
    Friendly's

    Friendly Ice Cream Corporation is the owner and operator of the Friendly's restaurant chain on the east coast of the United States. Founded in 1935 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts by two young brothers, 18-year-old Curtis Blake and 20-year-old S....
     change color as cold liquid passes through them.


Trivia

  • Nicholson Baker
    Nicholson Baker

    Nicholson Baker is a contemporary American writer of fiction and non-fiction. As a novelist, his writings focus on minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' Stream of consciousness writing....
    's 1988 novel The Mezzanine
    The Mezzanine

    The Mezzanine is a first novel by Nicholson Baker about what goes through a man's mind during a modern lunch break.Plot introduction...
     includes a detailed discussion of various types of drinking straw experienced by the narrator and their relative merits.
  • The longest chain of drinking straws was set on 10 July 2008 in Buzau by a group of young students from the National College "B.P. Hasdeu" measuring 11.298 meters and consisting of 58.469 straws.
  • Insufflation
    Insufflation

    Insufflation is the practice of Inhalation substances into a body cavity. Insufflation has limited medical use, but is a common route of administration with many respiration drugs used to treat conditions in the lungs and paranasal sinus ....
     (known colloquially as "snorting," "sniffing," or "blowing"), the most common method of ingestion of recreational powdered cocaine
    Cocaine

    Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine....
    , typically involves using a cut straw or hollow tube.


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