Why do some cloths become see through when wet?

Question

Why do some cloths become see through when wet?

In: 8

Answer 1

Some stuff is white, because the material it’s made out of is white (light in the visible spectrum bounces off of it).

Some stuff is white because the material it’s made out of is clear, but it has a lot of texture. (light in the visible spectrum passes through it, but gets bent in essentially random directions) For example, frosted glass.

If the second type of stuff gets wet, then the water smooths out the surface, so light goes through it in straight lines rather than getting scattered. And voila, see through.