ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

welding vs soldering

Welding and soldering are ways to stick pieces of metal together. Think of it like using glue to stick two pieces of paper together, but instead of glue, we use heat to melt metal and join it together.

Welding uses a big machine that produces a lot of heat to melt the metal pieces together. The melted metal joins and cools to become one solid piece. It's like using a super-hot glue gun.

Soldering uses a smaller tool called a soldering iron, which is like a pen with a heated metal tip. We melt a softer metal called solder onto the joint between the two pieces of metal. When it cools, it solidifies and makes a connection between the two pieces of metal.

Welding is used when two pieces of metal need to become one solid piece, like when building a car or a bridge. Soldering is used when we need to make smaller connections, like creating electronic circuits.

So, welding is like using a big glue gun to make two pieces of metal stick together while soldering is like using a tiny pen with heated glue to make a small connection between two pieces of metal.