Posted by Dr. Science on 01/11/2013 in
Question |
I know that if I put a red sock in with my white laundry, all the laundry turns pink. What would happen if I put a white sock in with colored laundry?
———- from Kyle DeWees of Muncie, IN
It would, as you’ve probably already surmised, suck all the color out of your clothing. This is how they bleach blue jeans, without resorting to expensive and environmentally dangerous chlorine bleaches. It’s actually a form of osmotic pressure, bland substances leaching the essence of their more colorful neighbors. This is why so many Minnesotans visit places like Mexico, or New Orleans. Like blind albino trout in a cave, they know they’re missing something, even if they can’t define what that something is.
