Why can gases be compressed much more easily than liquids?

Gases have huge gaps between their molecules, so the particles can move far apart and still stay in the same volume. Because of these gaps, applying pressure simply pushes the molecules closer together, and the gas’s volume shrinks easily. Liquids, on the other hand, have molecules almost touching each other, leaving almost no empty space to squeeze into. As a result, you need a lot more force to bring liquid molecules even a little closer, making liquids far harder to compress. For instance, you can quickly squish a balloon filled with air, but squeezing a water bottle requires far more effort to reduce its volume.