This is no joke - we all know what happens when you wash wool in water?
2007-10-11 19:02:24 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
Sheeps' wool is protected by lanolin, a greasy substance which is secreted by their skin and renders the wool water repellent. This is why, apart from shrinking, their wool doesn't get soaked like a sponge and really heavy with water when they are in the rain.
2007-10-11 19:12:33 · answer #1 · answered by surlygurl 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because it only rains Cold water.
It's hot water that shrinks wool, or the more proper term, 'felting.'
By the way, if you wash a shrunk sweater in really strong salt water, the fibers will open up, and it can come back to the original size.
Also, she's wool (on the sheep) is full of lanolin - an oily waxy substance (that smells like camels) that keeps much of the water out.
Go pet a sheep, they are kind of oily.
2007-10-11 22:04:10 · answer #2 · answered by DRD 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wool doesn't shrink it just any water. It shrinks in hot water, and it only shrinks if it is woven tightly together into fabric.
Sheep don't shrink because they are flesh and blood, not made out of wool. Also, they have a substance called "lanolin" on their coat, which is an oil. Since oil is hydrophobic, water pretty much just slides off of it.
2007-10-11 19:10:04 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The temperature of rain does not exceed the optimum temperature at which wool can be washed or rinsed.
Wool garments too will not shrink if you wash them at the optimum temperature. This is usually hand-warm or tepid. If you exceed this, you will get irreversible shrinkage.
Read a care label on a wool garment - it will say hand wash in tepid water.
Sheep do not come with a label. Which is great, because rain can't read.
2007-10-11 19:13:42 · answer #4 · answered by elmina 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A sheep is a living thing. Wool shrinks in hot or warm water--not in cold water. (never tried dunking a sheep in hot water but being living--I still don't think it would shrink)
2007-10-11 19:15:58 · answer #5 · answered by old_woman_84 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sheep's wool is covered in lanolin (a type of oil) and it doesn't allow the water to stay on the coat. It just rolls off because of the lanolin. And, by the way, that lanolin is what makes them smell so bad. It collects dirt and crud and the lanolin can turn rancid.
2007-10-11 19:15:44 · answer #6 · answered by Frosty 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋