The way things work
Yesterday Edith watched me iron some clothes on the little tabletop ironing board, set up on the edge of our bed.
"When it's done, the iron is full of wrinkles," she suggested.
I enjoyed the logical analogy to a vacuum cleaner. But Tom decided he should enlighten her. So he tried to explain that that wasn't how it worked, that the iron didn't collect wrinkles inside, it just pushed them out.
"It pushes the wrinkles out all over the bed," Edith replied.
Tom let it go.
Why does heat reset the drape of a fabric (or the shape of hair)? I'm about to reveal my total ignorance of physical science, but...it's not as though the atoms in a wrinkle have formed chemical bonds that are disrupted by the heat, right?
***
At dinner Edith held her bowl of broccoli to her bare belly.
"I thought my stomach would like to eat by itself," she announced. (If only it were that simple to bypass the toddler tastebuds...)
When we looked dubious, she corrected herself.
"My stomach eats what my mouth eats."
We agreed.
"I thought my stomach would like to eat by itself," she announced. (If only it were that simple to bypass the toddler tastebuds...)
When we looked dubious, she corrected herself.
"My stomach eats what my mouth eats."
We agreed.
2 comments:
For interested readers, a good answer to the question: Why does ironing remove wrinkles? Can be found here:
http://chemistry.about.com/od/howthingsworkfaqs/f/clotheswrinkle.htm
Bottom line - heat and water during the laundry process break the hydrogen bonds that hold a fabric's shape. This causes wrinkling. An iron uses heat and steam again to re-break the wrinkled fabric's hydrogen bonds and the pressure of the iron to cause the new bonds that subsequently form to hold the fabric in a smooth shape.
Sorry, the website address got cut-off:
http://chemistry.about.com/od/howthingsworkfaqs
/f/clotheswrinkle.htm
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