Gel

Gel is a kind of squishy stuff that you might see in things like hair products or hand sanitizer. It's made by mixing a liquid with something called a "thickener," which makes the liquid thicker and more solid-like.

Imagine you have a cup of water. If you pour it on the ground, it just flows everywhere and doesn't stay in one place. But if you add a little bit of flour or cornstarch to the water and stir it really well, you'll get a gooey mixture that stays put instead of flowing all over. That's sort of like how gel is made!

Depending on what the gel is for, different kinds of thickeners might be used. For example, hair gel might use a thickener called carbomer, while hand sanitizer might use one called xanthan gum.

Once the liquid and thickener are mixed together, the gel gets packaged up and sold to be used in lots of different ways. Maybe someone wants to put it in their hair to keep it styled all day, or maybe they want to use it to clean their hands without needing water.

So basically, gel is a special kind of squishy substance that's made by mixing a liquid with a thickener.