Why do clothes get darker when drenched in water?
By Gammmae105
@Gammmae105 (72)
United States
October 5, 2009 4:23pm CST
I've been dying to know this for so long. Water is clear, but when it gets on your clothes, somehow, it makes them darker? Why is that?
1 response
@wmraul (2552)
• Bucharest, Romania
5 Oct 09
DEspite clothes is so thin, it has a "depht". No matter how "water proof"is, it still allow water to fill some tiny holes.
Once water filled the texture, the scatering angle of light reflection is diffenernt and less light reflect, part refract, which lead to a decrease of light coming back = impression the color is darker.
@Gammmae105 (72)
• United States
6 Oct 09
Thanks. Makes more sense, but what accounts for the change of the scattering angle?
@wmraul (2552)
• Bucharest, Romania
6 Oct 09
-take a textile
-get some powerfull lens
-look at the textile texture thru the lens
-you'll see some square spaces something like a grid
-water fill those square spaces
-refraction/reflexion parameters of light have different values for air (dry textile) or water (wet textile)
-for wet textile a bit less light comes back which create ilusion of a darker color.
