ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Alcoholic spirits measure

Okay, so imagine you have a big jar of juice. But, instead of juice, it's filled with a liquid that can make grown-ups feel funny if they drink too much of it. That's called liquor or alcoholic spirits.

Now, when grown-ups drink the juice, they might not know how much of the funny feeling liquid is in it. So, they use a special tool to measure it. It's like a ruler, but for liquids. This tool is called an alcoholometer.

The alcoholometer measures how much of the funny feeling liquid is in the juice, and tells you what percentage of the juice is the funny feeling liquid. It's like saying, "Out of 100 drops of juice, this many drops are the funny feeling liquid."

This percentage is what is called the alcohol by volume or ABV measure. So, if the ABV measure is 40%, it means that out of 100 drops of the juice, 40 drops are the funny feeling liquid.

This is important because grown-ups need to know how much of the funny feeling liquid they are drinking so they can be safe and not drink too much.