Why does quicksand work slowly?

Setting the lame, elderly joke aside (it's not “slow”), it's called “quicksand” because “quick” is an old word meaning “live”. It's etymologically related to the Latin vivere “to live”. read more

Thus, the body will float quite easily in quicksand. But, if you move around alot, as any normal panicky person would do if they stepped into it, it causes you to dig yourself down into it pretty quickly. read more

Trivia: quicksand doesn’t “suck you down.” Quicksand is basically just thin mud. If you can swim in water, you can swim in quicksand, just much more slowly. read more