A recent conversation left me thinking long after it ended.

While speaking with a group of young future leaders, one of the girls walked up to me afterward with a question that caught me completely off guard.

She smiled and asked, "What is wet?"

Not what is water. Not why is something wet. Just... what is wet?

I laughed and admitted that I didn't have a good answer.

We tossed around ideas. Is it the water molecules sitting on the surface? Is "wet" something we actually feel, or is it simply our brain interpreting the presence of liquid? If water is wet, is a single water molecule wet? Or does "wet" only exist when a liquid comes into contact with something else?

I finally told her, "You know what? I'm going to think about this one. Give me a couple of weeks, and I'll write about it."

So this post is for her, and for everyone else who enjoys questions that seem incredibly simple until you actually try to answer them.

Let's dive into one of the strangest questions you've probably never seriously considered:

So... what is wet?

Scientifically, something is wet when a liquid sticks to its surface.

That means:

•  Your shirt after walking in the rain? Wet.
•  A towel after drying off? Wet.
•  A countertop after you spill your coffee? Wet.

In each case, liquid is coating or clinging to the surface.

But... is water itself wet?

This is where the debate starts.

There are two common viewpoints:

Viewpoint 1 (the one most scientists favor):

 Water is not wet. Water makes other things wet. "Wet" is a description of what happens when a liquid is on the surface of another object.

Viewpoint 2 (the philosophical argument):

 If water molecules are touching other water molecules, then each molecule is in contact with liquid. By that logic, water could be considered wet because it's surrounded by more water.

Neither answer is completely ridiculous—it all comes down to how you define the word wet.