Question

Paheli went to the market to buy sarees for her mother. She took out a thread from the edge of the two sarees shown by the shopkeeper and burnt them. One thread burnt with a smell of burning hair and the other burnt with the smell of burning paper. Which thread is from a pure cotton saree and which one from a pure silk saree? Give a reason for your answer.

Answer 1

To determine clothes material:

1. To determine the purity of silk thread we need to burn it and if the burning smell is similar to the smell of a burning hair then we can conclude it's a silk thread. Silk and hair release the same smell as they are mainly protein fibers.
2. To determine the purity of cotton thread we need to burn it and if the burning smell is similar to the smell of a burning paper then we can conclude that it's a cotton thread. They give the same smell as they are both made up of carbohydrates.
3. So, the thread which burns like the smell of burning hair is from a silk saree and the other from a cotton saree.