There are some questions that there seem to be no obvious answers to. Mysteries that elude all attempts at reason. Many of these questions have been touched upon in various forms in different areas of this forum. One, in particular was discussed at great length in our General Questions forum a few months ago. Because no one had an answer, I have been on a seemingly endless quest; doing hours of research, interviewing hundreds of people, staying awake into the wee hours of the morning, flipping through dusty, century-old books, all to find The Answer. I have finally found an answer to the question that plagues us, that TORMENTS us night and day as we hurry through our busy lives...
(drumroll, please!)
How does the Downy fabric-softener ball work?
(Ok, ok...so I found the answer on www.askjeeves.com. But I sure had you all on the edge of your seats, didn't I? )
The Downy fabric-softener ball has to be one of the simplest inventions ever. The ball is a self-contained timing device, meaning that you don't have to wait for the spin cycle to insert the liquid fabric softener into a load of laundry.
The ball utilizes Newton's first law of motion -- "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force" -- in an ingenious way to dispense the liquid at the correct time during the wash.
Initially, the ball floats on top of the water in a top-loading washer (front-loading washers cannot use the ball because it needs a vertically aligned cylinder for the release mechanism to work). The ball stays this way through the first few normal cycles. The liquid fabric softener is kept inside the ball by a rubber gasket connected to a rubber weight that hangs toward the center of the ball. The seal that is formed can withstand a fairly hefty force, which you can see for yourself if you try to open it.
As the spin cycle begins, the ball is thrown against the side of the washer with a great deal of force. This is where Newton's first law comes into play.
As the ball travels towards the side of the washer, both the hard outer shell and the rubber weight in the center are travelling at a certain speed and in a certain direction -- they have momentum. Once the ball hits the wall, the outer shell is immediately stopped, but the rubber weight can still move inside the ball. The weight keeps travelling with the same momentum toward the wall. Since the weight is connected to the gasket, once the weight reaches a certain angle the gasket is popped and the seal is compromised. At this point, the ball sinks, and the water in the base of the washer flows in to mix with the fabric softener. The mixture then flows out of the ball and into your clothing at precisely the right moment -- and you didn't have to time it yourself!
(From Marshall Brain's How Stuff Works)
[This message has been edited by Ethrdg (edited 07-10-2002).]
LMAO! OMG!! That was too cool man! Jeeves knows an awful lot doesnt he? There's one question down, only 3,889,343,898,343,736,789,133,217,456,875,432,344,782,655 more to go..lol Well come on, dont drop that jaw, start ta lookin girl..lol Take care hon!
Hmmm... I asked Jeeves about that one and the first link that popped up was a matchmaker website---to help lonely single women find (insensitive?) men! Guess that one will go unanswered for a bit longer...back to the books, I guess!
Oh boy, here we go again...LOL! THat was great. I wondered but never took the time to do all the research required. I imagine you are going to take a vacation from all that hard work, huh? Well, I know I can finally sleep. Oh, maybe not. THanks Doilie for bringing up the other 245,458,153,458,697,235,545,558,444,123 questions still left unanswered. Reena
Posts: 3719 | Location: USA | Registered: January 01, 2001
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There's one question down, only 3,889,343,898,343,736,789,133,217,456,875,432,344,782,655 more to go..lol Well come on, dont drop that jaw, start ta lookin girl..lol 
