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Zoology Archive

Hair and Temperature


name       DEBBIE
status     student
age        17

Question - Why doe's the tensile strength of human hair
decrease with temperature increase ?

Some denaturing of the protein...i.e., breaking of certain cross linking
bonds between the keratin fibers disulfide bonds etc. This is related to
why moderate heating and setting of hair is a way to reorganize the
appearance of hair...ironing to straighten the hair of curling irons to curl
it.

PF
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