Why exactly does pouring water on fabric make it darker?
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Small things reflect more light than big things, because they have more surface area.
That’s why a block of ice is quite transparent, but a pile of ground-up ice isn’t.
Fabric is mostly tiny strands, so it reflects a lot of the light.
If you make it wet, the water fills in the gaps, so it has less surface area, and reflects less light.
You’re a stoner aren’t you?
It’s the same as how a clam surface of water is see through, but if you make lots of tiny bubbles it gets white, like white water rapids. Every time light goes from one thing to another a little bit of light bounces off or reflects, and the rest is either absorbed or is bent a little. In see through things it bends instead of being absorbed, but it always bends a little. That is why when you put your hand in calm water it looks smaller than when it is in the air, all the light bends once when it goes from water to air before it hits your eyes. In frothy water or in fabric with lots of microscopic partially see through threads on the surface the light bounces and bends many many times, so it turns into basically a white glow.
If you get fabric wet then the light goes from air to water to fiber to water to fiber to water to fiber to air. Fiber to water is a very small bend in the light, but fiber to air or water to air is a big bend. So when you have dry fibers it’s air to fiber to air to fiber to air, lots of big bends instead of lots of small bends.
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