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Re: [Phys-L] [SPAM] Levi's ground state?



Wow! A most unusual phenomenon! I've been doing laundry for years and
never experienced this. I have heard that shirts can turn inside out in
the washer due to the stitching on the inside. Because of this, turning
the shirt inside out (before washing) will usually not make it come out
the normal way.

Phys-L@Phys-L.org writes:
Last night I observed a physical phenomenon that I have neither seen nor
heard of before. It has made me think that there are physical principles
at work in mysterious ways.

When my wife washes my Levi’s she asks me to empty pockets, zip the
fly, and button the top button before putting them in the dirty clothes
basket. They always come back clean and ready to wear. My wife was away
for a week and I had to do my own laundry. I failed to zip and button my
Levi’s and I washed them with three pair of undershorts and four pair
of socks. They went through the wash in an unexceptional manner and I put
them into our electric dryer. After 25 minutes of tumbling and being
blown with hot air I took them out of the dryer. I was astonished to see
that my unzipped, unbuttoned Levi’s had come through the process inside
out - not just partially, but completely inside out, including both legs.

The only thing I can think of that distinguishes the two states of
Levi’s physically is their relative moments of inertia. Inside out
Levi’s have pocket pouches farther from their center of mass than when
they are inside in. I can imagine that they are buffeted and spun inside
the tumble dryer, and that centrifugal forces will favor states with
larger moments of inertia. Still, this is not an entirely satisfactory
explanation of the phenomenon. Also, there’s the matter of the legs;
the blower may have turned them inside out once the upper part was turned?

Of course I will have to investigate the reproducibility of the
phenomenon. I have not done so, but in time my Levi’s will likely get
dirty again, and I will be careful to try to reproduce the initial
conditions, and of course I will share my results.

Any ideas? Has anyone else observed this phenomenon?

Leigh
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