Lint (material) facts for kids
Lint is a collection of clothing fibers and other materials usually on or around clothing.
Types
Pocket lint
Pocket lint is lint in the bottom of pockets. Pocket lint is usually made up of, but not limited to detached fabric, dust and paper scraps. In some contexts, pocket lint may also refer to random items in one's pocket.
Navel lint, also called belly button lint, belly button fluff or navel fluff, is an collection of fluffy fibres in one's navel.
Many people find that, at the beginning and end of the day, a small lump of fluff has appeared in the navel cavity. People have wondered why this happens for many years. In 2001, Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki of the University of Sydney, Australia, did a survey to find out why this happens. This is what he found out:
- Navel lint is mostly stray fibers from one's clothing, mixed with some dead skin cells and body hair.
- Unlike what most people think, navel lint comes from a person's underwear and not from their shirts or tops. The fibres move there from friction of body hair on underwear.
- Women have less navel lint because of their finer and shorter body hairs. Older men have it more because of they have more hair and it is thicker.
- Navel lint's color is usually blue-gray. The color is most likely an average of all clothing colors worn.
- Navel lint is entirely harmless and does not need to be corrected.
Dr. Kruszelnicki was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in 2002. The Ig Nobel Prize is given for "achievements that cannot or should not be repeated".
Austrian scientist Georg Steinhauser has also done research on the navel lint.
Other pages
Images for kids
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Close-up of dryer lint.
See also
In Spanish: Pelusa (material) para niños
