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Re: sticky shower curtains



Is it possible that you are referring to a
flaking phenomena such as dandruff?
If so, I doubt that it is involved with
sticky shower curtains.

Herb Gottlieb from New York City
(Where the above response is "just off the top
of my head")


On Thu, 15 May 2003 15:32:17 -0500 cliff parker <cparker@CHARTER.NET>
writes:
Just off the top of my head... I wonder if it has anything to do
with
dissolved minerals left behind after the water evaporates.

Cliff Parker

Never express yourself more clearly than you can think. Niels Bohr
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Britton" <britton@NCSSM.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 8:17 AM
Subject: Re: sticky shower curtains


I'm sure that this explanation doesn't apply to OTHER household -
but
it does in MINE!

The answer is SCUZZZ.

Wet scuz glues the curtain to the porcelain. Once everything is
dry -
the glue is still holding. But DRY glue (scuz) won't rejoin the
surfaces.

I sure do enjoy reading all these high falutin' explanations of
how
the world works?


My experience is that clean, dry, newly exposed vinyl DOES adhere
well to smooth (glass) surfaces. Those removable car window
stickers
come to mind.




At 8:59 AM -0400 5/15/03, Carl E. Mungan wrote:

I was wondering what makes wet shower curtains so sticky? I
suppose the
answer is that water adheres to both plastic and porcelain. But
what
seems
curious to me is that the curtain continues to stick after the
water
evaporates, and yet I cannot get a dry shower curtain to adhere
to the
tub
when I press it on. This suggests that plastic doesn't adhere
directly to
porcelain, but that even after all the evident water evaporates
something
has happened to the surface bonds of the plastic and porcelain.

Two possibilities come to mind: Maybe there's a thin monolayer of
water
still left after the bulk evaporates (since water adheres so
well) and
that's like a thin glue between the curtain and tub. The counter
to this
is
that even a "dry" curtain should then have about a monolayer of
water
left
on it, so why shouldn't a "dry" curtain adhere to a tub when I rub
my
finger
nail over it like I might do with a piece of scotch tape?

The other possibility has to do with how the dangling surface
bonds get
passivated as the water between the curtain and tub evaporates,
but I'm
starting to get out of my league here.

Curious mind invites comments (CMIC), Carl
-----
Carl E. Mungan, Asst. Prof. of Physics 410-293-6680 (O) -3729
(F)
U.S. Naval Academy, Stop 9C, Annapolis, MD 21402-5026
mailto:mungan@usna.edu
http://usna.edu/Users/physics/mungan/


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