system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does sugar get viscous (form a syrup) at high concentration but salt doesn't?

I just had a flash back to trying to thicken something as a kid with salt but it never got syrupy. The sugar isn't forming polymers is it? What is it about about sugar that can make a syrup but salt cannot?
gpt
Firstly, they are very different chemicals. When salt dissolves in water it breaks apart (dissociates) into sodium and chlorine ions which are individually herded (conjugated) by water molecules. Sugars are much larger, complex molecules which do not generally break apart when interacting with water.

Because sugars are carbohydrates, they can participate in hydrogen bonding which increases viscosity and surface tension. Each molecule's "heads" try to stay close to their neighbors' "butts". Because they are larger and are mostly planar they can more strongly interact through van der Waals forces (this effect is small compared to the hydrogen bonding in solution)