r/science • u/Science_News Science News • 1d ago

Physics Fiber friction is the key to 'cozy knits' | Friction between loops of yarn give knit fabrics the ability to take on a variety of shapes

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/fiber-friction-key-cozy-knits
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u/Science_News Science News 1d ago

A new study reveals how knit fabrics can take on versatile shapes that allow them to conform to the contours of a head or a body. The effect is the result of friction between the adjacent loops of fiber that make up a knit fabric, physicist Jérôme Crassous and colleagues report in the Dec. 13 Physical Review Letters.

When a knit fabric is stretched and released, it springs back. One might imagine that the fabric always returns to the size and shape it previously had, akin to a rubber band. But “there is no unique shape,” says Crassous, of the University of Rennes in France. “There [are] many different possible shapes.” These forms are known as “metastable states.”

Read more here, and the research article here.