What causes the Hiccups?!
Question: And how does the pump at the gasoline station know when to quit pumping automatically?
Answers: And how does the pump at the gasoline station know when to quit pumping automatically?
The part to blame is your diaphragm (say: die-uh-fram). This is a dome-shaped muscle at the bottom of your chest, and all hiccups start here.
The diaphragm almost always works perfectly. When you inhale, it pulls down to help pull air into the lungs. When you exhale, it pushes up to help push air out of the lungs. But sometimes the diaphragm becomes irritated. When this happens, it pulls down in a jerky way, which makes you suck air into your throat suddenly. When the air rushing in hits your voice box, you're left with a big hiccup.
Some things that irritate the diaphragm are eating too quickly or too much, an irritation in the stomach or the throat, or feeling nervous or excited. Almost all cases of the hiccups last only a few minutes. Some cases of the hiccups can last for days or weeks, but this is very unusual, and it's usually a sign of another medical problem.
Question 2
When your gas gauge reads empty, your tank is filled with air instead of fuel. As you add fuel, the air must move out of the tank to make way for the gas. Next time you fill your car at the gas station, take a look at the pump nozzle. You will find a hole about a half inch from the end of the nozzle. This hole is connected to a small pipe that travels through the nozzle to the handle.
When you fill your gas tank, some of the displaced air flows through the hole in the nozzle into the pipe. When the tank is full, the hole will be below the gasoline level and no air will pass through the pipe. A mechanical switch inside the nozzle detects when the flow of air stops and shuts off the gas.
You may have noticed that, after the pump shuts off, you can get more gas in your tank by pulling the nozzle out of the tank a bit. This is because you