So some of the light that would have previously been reflected off the cloth back to your eyes, is now bent away.įewer photons of light get back to your eyeball, and so the wet cloth 'appears' darker than the dry cloth. When light falls on the wet cloth, some of it is now more likely to enter the water, and be bent away from your eyes. But when the cloth gets wet, the water fills in the gaps between each individual strand of fibre, and also between each individual micro-fibre. Some of the photons of light are absorbed, but some are reflected and land on your retina - and that gives you the sensation of seeing the cloth as having a certain level of brightness. Light comes from the room lights, or from the Sun, and lands on the cloth. That fibre is in turn made of smaller micro-fibres. One very perceptive question that came in on the Morning Show was, 'Why does cloth get darker when it's wet?'Ī wet cloth looks darker because less light is reflected from a wet cloth. (You will need Real Audio which you can download for free) Listen to Karl talk about Cloth's Darker When Wet Science Home News in Science In Depth Dr Karl TV & Radio Games Teachers Kids Get Involved Video Audio Photos RSS/Pod

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