I tossed a dishtowel at the edge of the kitchen sink hoping to drape it over the edge. It was a bad toss, but it got the job done. There was about 20% of the towel on one side of the edge and 80% on the other, but it didn't slide off, because it was damp. I was reminded how, if I drape a wet material over the shower curtain rod, there's a lot more "grip" or friction when I try to pull it along the rod. This seemed like it should be counter-intuitive, because water is famous for making things more slippery, not less. Car tires have less friction with roads, not more, when the road is wet.
I couldn't find much about this, except this page here:
Why is clothes-wet skin friction coefficient higher than clothes-dry skin?
where someone mentions that they also couldn't find much. His question is asking about skin, so he gets a couple of skin-related answers, but I think his question is just a subset of mine.
Does anyone here think the answers regarding surface tension and capillary action are correct? Could it also simply be that, for example, when you put a damp material on a curtain rod, the rod becomes damp and so the water molecules on both surfaces are attracting each other? Anyone have a different answer?
I couldn't find much about this, except this page here:
Why is clothes-wet skin friction coefficient higher than clothes-dry skin?
where someone mentions that they also couldn't find much. His question is asking about skin, so he gets a couple of skin-related answers, but I think his question is just a subset of mine.
Does anyone here think the answers regarding surface tension and capillary action are correct? Could it also simply be that, for example, when you put a damp material on a curtain rod, the rod becomes damp and so the water molecules on both surfaces are attracting each other? Anyone have a different answer?
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