where
R is the electrical resistance of a uniform specimen of the material (measured in ohms, Ω)
ell is the length of the piece of material (measured in metres, m)
A is the cross-sectional area of the specimen (measured in square metres, m2).
The reason resistivity is defined this way is that it makes resistivity an intrinsic property, unlike resistance. All copper wires, irrespective of their shape and size, have approximately the same resistivity, but a long, thin copper wire has a much larger resistance than a thick, short copper wire. Every material has its own characteristic resistivity – for example, resistivity of rubber is far larger than copper's.
In a hydraulic analogy, passing current through a high-resistivity material is like pushing water through a pipe full of sand—while passing current through a low-resistivity material is like pushing water through an empty pipe. If the pipes are the same size and shape, the pipe full of sand has higher resistance to flow. Resistance, however, is not solely determined by the presence or absence of sand. It also depends on the length and width of the pipe: short or wide pipes have lower resistance than narrow or long pipes.
The above equation can be transposed to get Pouillet's law (named after Claude Pouillet):