Submitted by formulaswift t3_z962j8 in explainlikeimfive
I just did it with an arm hair and it also got curly. What is the mechanism behind this?
Submitted by formulaswift t3_z962j8 in explainlikeimfive
I just did it with an arm hair and it also got curly. What is the mechanism behind this?
krattalak t1_iyf8xe8 wrote
OH!OH!OH! I know this.
When you pinch the ribbon and pull on it, if the force applied exceeds what's called the 'yield' force, it causes the outside of the ribbon to deform while the inside of the ribbon stays the same. This induces the curl.
There's actually a study on this. This was the topic of a SciShow video on youtube.