Have you or your family ever purchased a cloth thinking it to be cotton or wool and later found it to be a synthetic fibre cloth? There are variety of fibres we use in our lives for clothing, making ropes, bags and containers, and cleaning materials. Usually by looks, touch, texture, sense of weight we try to identify them. But sometime we can be easily cheated by just looks. For example, a thread may look like cotton but may be synthetic or it may look synthetic but may be a natural fibre. Do you think an understanding of material properties and microscopic shape of fibres can help us in their identification? Here we will explore this.
Twists in the Fibres
Description
Materials Required
Threads- at least one cotton, a polyester (or any other synthetic) thread, one wool (if you don’t get real wool, a broken hair can also be taken), and an unknown thread.
The fibres should be clean, so that any other substance sticking to them does not affect the results of observations.
Candle, match stick, Beaker, forceps, watch glass, water.
Microscope, glass slide, and cover slip.
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