I know it is hard to define ‘sticky’ … and i don’t know if stickyness has anything to do with viscosity or thickness… or maybe it is even a function of time, or a function of chemical reactions, or a combination thereof. Glue (before it even dries) is sticky. Juice, soda, or practically anything we drink (except water) is “stickier than water” (if you spill it or get it on your hands).
Maybe one way of defining ‘sticky’ is how hard it is to get off of you, if you jump into a pool of it. Water is pretty easy to get off - we do it everytime we take a shower or go swimming. If you jumped in a pool full of tar, orange juice, Dr. Pepper… it would be harder to get off, and you’d probably have to use water to do so.
This is probably a really stupid question… i spilled a drink (soda) on my desk earlier, and when i wiped it up, the desk was sticky. Just got me wondering…
Maybe a better way of asking this question is to phrase it this way: is there anything LESS sticky than water (obviously there are many things more sticky)? Is there anything that if you jumped into a pool full of it, it would be easier to wipe off than water (aside from things which would instantly evaporate)? One thing that comes to mind is mercury… but i don’t know.
I know “sticky” is not a scientific term, which is probably the downfall of this question
Alcohols, and most solvents in general, are less sticky than water.
Specifically, it is the sugar/cornsyrup in sweet stuff that makes it sticky.
[nerd stuff]Given perfect water and perfectly clean flat glass, a drop of water placed on the glass will spread out as far as possible. This distance, ignoring things like vapor pressure/evaporation, is the size of the glass plate.
if i have a perfectly clean/flat piece of glass that is 100 square miles in area, and put one drop (lets say, 0.05 cc) of perfectly pure water in the middle… it would spread out and cover all 100 mi^2 of the glass?
(the skeptic in me says no way, although maybe i misunderstood what you said)
Just out of curiosity, since you say alcohols and solvents (turpentine? that type of stuff?) are less sticky than water… is there an actual scientific definition (or unit?) for “stickiness”? (i have no idea)
Yes, water is sticky, as in the water molecules stick to each other. Try this experiment: fill a small glass of water as full as you can, up to the very brim. Take some sewing needles, and drop them into the glass one by one, point first. You can put a couple dozen needles into the glass without it overflowing, creating a slight “bubble” rising up above the top of the glass. This is caused by surface tension, which is the molecules sticking to each other because of their shape.
You can also float a steel sewing needle, which is more dense than water, on the perfectly calm surface of a glass of water.
You can heat water in a microwave well past 212 degrees fahrenheit if the glass is still and the water is heated slowly enough, agian because the molecules stick to each other and need some force to break them apart and start the boiling process (by the way, do not try this; the water can explode and severely burn you).
Kalt: if the glass is clean, the water will “bead”, creating a bubble on the glass and staying where you dropped it. You could even add drops to the bubble, increasing it’s size.
