Welcome to Brainstuff from how Stuff Works dot com where smart happens. This podcast is brought to you by Go to Meeting, the best way to hold meetings over the Internet. Reduce travel expenses, save time. Just hold an online meeting with go to Meeting. Try it free, visit go to meeting dot com slash Brainstuff. Hi, Am Marshall brain with today's question, why doesn't paper money disintegrate when it gets
washed in the washing machine? Normal paper, which includes notebook paper, newspaper, construction paper, is all made out of cellulos, which comes from trees. The trees are chemically broken down into their individual wood fibers, and the cellulose fibers are formed into very thin sheets to create paper. Paper. Money, on the other hand, is made from a different kind of fiber, cotton and linen fibers. To be exact, you've probably heard
of rag paper or fine linen writing paper. This is where it comes from, and money is made from the same thing. It turns out that cotton and linen fibers bond together much more firmly than fibers in regular wood fiber paper. Cotton and linen fibers are basically unaffected by water, whereas cellulose fibers absorb water and come apart when they get wet. So paper money comes through the washer just fine, while cellulose paper comes on glued. Do you have any
ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, go to how stuff works dot com.