Re: why is water slippery?

Thanks for the question, Ardis.

I hope I can answer the question in a way a four year old can understand. I haven’t talked with any four year old children lately so I hope I do ok.

When you ask why water is slippery, I assume that you are interested in the situation where water is on a solid surface, for example, water is on a floor and the floor is more slippery than the dry floor. In this case, the water keeps your feet from making solid contact with the floor. Since your foot is not making solid contact with the floor you are basically floating on a very thin film of water. Water is a fluid, which means it can flow when you disturb it and when it flows, your foot slides with it. The water acts as a lubricant between your foot and the floor, lowers the amount of friction between the two, and makes it more difficult to stand up.

This is why a floor with water on it is slippery. There are certainly some complicated theories that describe the flow of water in cases like this but they are well beyond what is necessary to answer the question.

If you are interested in a different situation or need more explanation, please resubmit the question and I will try again.