ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Incompressible string

Imagine you have a piece of string. When you hold it in your hand, you can feel it and move it around. But, no matter how hard you try, you can't push it together so it becomes smaller or squish it to become bigger. The string stays the same size no matter what.

That's what we mean when we say the string is incompressible. It's like a really stubborn friend who refuses to change shape.

Now, why does the string behave this way? Well, it has to do with how the string is made up. You see, inside the string, there are tiny little atoms. These atoms are like the building blocks of everything, and they're connected together to form the string.

When we try to push the string together or pull it apart, what we're really trying to do is move these atoms closer or farther away from each other. But, the atoms in the string are held together very tightly, and they don't like to move much. That's why, no matter what we do to the string, it always stays the same size.

So, in summary, an incompressible string is a string that cannot be made smaller or larger by pushing or pulling on it. This is because the tiny atoms inside the string are tightly held together and resist any changes in size.