I searched the archives, with no success. If there is an existing link on this, thanks in advance for pointing me to it.
This seems to me to be a stupid question, and it probably has a very simple answer. It’s beyond me, though.
Why do clothes shrink in the dryer? It’s the heat that makes them shrink, but in most (if not all) other materials I can think of, heat makes them expand, not shrink. What’s the deal?
Shrinking clothes are a bit different than thermal expansion of metal. Metal expands when heated but it shrinks again when cooled. Clothes can shrink to a smaller size than when they started but that’s a whole different process. You’re wetting, drying, heating and cooling the fibers that make up the thread. They often don’t return to the same oriantation they started in.
I’m positive Cecil answered this one, but I haven’t found it in the archives or in any of the four indices to his books. In any case, his answer essentially matched Padeye’s. Cotton fibers have to be subjected to extraordinary measures to force them to straighten out. A little hot water causes them to shrivel up again. Simple, no? Cease wasting your time worrying about this, and instead devote your efforts to solving the mysteries of piss shiver and why the shower curtain flies up while you’re showering.
Sorry to resurrect this seemingly dead thread, but something that happened to me yesterday evening shows there may be more to this.
Here in Atlanta, it was pretty damn hot yesterday. I left my wool baseball cap (it’s a fitted cap, and it fit me fine when I put it on yesterday morning) in the car, which was parked in the sun all day. When I got out to my car yesterday at 4:00pm, I sat down, and tried to put my hat on. No go. It was very tight. I took it into the house and it sat in the AC all night long. Now, this morning when I tried it on, it fit fine. The cap did not get wet at all, it only was heated and then cooled. Any more thoughts on this?