What is viscosity?

Viscosity is how thick or sticky a liquid feels when you move through it.

Imagine you're trying to swim through honey versus swimming through water. In honey, you feel like you're moving through something thick and slow, almost like it's holding you back. That’s because honey has high viscosity, it resists your movement a lot. In water, you move more easily, since water has low viscosity, it doesn’t resist as much.

Think of syrup and juice. Syrup is like the slowest swimmer in a race, it takes time to pour out of the bottle because it’s really thick. Juice moves faster because it's less thick and flows more freely. So, viscosity tells us how easily a liquid can flow.

You can feel viscosity every day when you're drinking from a straw or pouring soup into a bowl. Some things are easy to pour, like water, while others take time, like maple syrup. That’s just viscosity at work!