People bleach their clothes. People with dark hair who want lighter hair may bleach their hair. Some people even bleach their teeth to give themselves a sparkling white smile.
If you’ve ever accidentally spilled bleach on dark clothes, you know what happens. They’re not so dark anymore! But why is that? What is it about bleach that makes colors less colorful?
Although we use the term bleach as if it was only one substance, there are actually several different types of bleach. The most popular is common household chlorine bleach, which is a water-based product that contains a chemical called sodium hypochlorite.
Another popular type of bleach is oxygen bleach, which contains hydrogen peroxide or other compounds that release peroxide when mixed with water. Bleach also comes as a powder in the form of a chemical called calcium hypochlorite.
All of these bleaches can be used to whiten clothing. They also make good cleaning agents, since they kill mold, germs and bacteria. A solution of bleach and water is often used to clean and disinfect hard surfaces in kitchens and bathrooms, for example. Even though early man didn’t understand the science behind bleach, the bleaching process has been around for thousands of years.
To understand how bleach removes color, it is helpful to understand a bit about how colors work. Chemical compounds — called chromophores — cause colors by reflecting a certain portion of the visible spectrum of light. For example, a blue dress contains chromophores that reflect blue light that our eyes see as the color blue.
Bleach works by releasing oxygen molecules in a process called oxidation. The oxygen molecules released by bleach break up the chemical bonds of chromophores.
The changed chromophore molecules either reflect no color or a color outside the visible spectrum. This absence of color is seen by our eyes as white.
You may have also noticed that fabrics left out in the sun will look faded or bleached over time. Does sunlight have bleach in it? Nope! But sunlight can work like bleach. High energy ultraviolet sunlight can disrupt the chemical bonds in chromophores, causing them to lose their color much like the oxidation process with bleach.
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Hi! My name is Kiara Downing. I think that the next Wonder is going to be about Egyptian Pyramids! I think this because pyramids come from Egypt. A pyramid is one of the shapes we are studying in Calendar Math this month!
That’s super cool that you are studying about pyramids in math, Kiara! We hope you are right about tomorrow’s Wonder…it would be even MORE super cool if it was about pyramids like you guessed! Thank you for stopping by Wonderopolis today!
Thanks for your facts about bleach. We liked the fact about the Navy being the first to wear t shirts under their uniforms. We also would like to know who invented or found the compounds in bleach?
You guys are GREAT Wonder Friends, Mrs. Gottlob’s 1st Hour! Thank you for sharing your favorite fact from this Wonder of the Day® about bleach! We’re not sure who invented or discovered the compounds found in bleach. We’ll have to do a bit more WONDERing about that one!
Tomorrow’s wonder is about pyramids.
Thanks for trying to guess what you think tomorrow’s Wonder might be about, Dan! We can’t wait to see if you are right!
Why did you make Wonderopolis?
Hi, Ben! We think it’s really neat that you and your classmates, Coolman and Tyler, left us this question on different Wonders of the Day today! THANKS! We’re going to answer this one comment for all the other ones you guys posted, OK?
We created Wonderopolis as a place where Wonder Friends of all ages (students, teachers, parents, grandparents) from all over the world could explore and learn new things! We thought it would be awesome to surprise everyone with a new Wonder of the Day® every day! We’re sure glad you and your classmates hang out here and hope you guys enjoy learning in Wonderopolis as much as we do!
Tomorrow’s must be a triangle.
We have really enjoyed reading all the guesses from our Wonder Friends (like you!) about tomorrow’s Wonder of the Day®, Nathan! We can’t wait to see what the Wonder is about and how many cool new facts we can learn!
Thanks for answering my question.
You bet, Dan! Thank YOU for being a great Wonder Friend!
I did not know that you can do all of that stuff with bleach. I knew that there is somethings that you can bleach but not this many. Can you tell me more?
Thanks for your GREAT comment, Zoey! We’re not sure about more activities using chlorine or oxygen bleach, but check out this cool website that talks about a different kind of bleaching that is causing concern for our ocean environments…coral bleaching! You can learn more about it here: http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/news/coral-reefs/?ar_a=1.
We have had positive and negative experiences with bleach. For example, some of our clothes hae been ruined by bleach stains while it makes our white clothes whiter!
Why does this happen?
Happy Friday, Mrs. Shoemaker’s 4th grade class! Did you know that when bleach ruins clothes, it’s because of a chemical reaction? The oxygen molecules in bleach work to “break up” the chemical compounds (called chromophores) that give clothes their color! When the chromophores are broken or changed, our eyes see an absence of color on the parts of the clothes that the bleach touched, making them appear to be whitened from the bleach!
Bleach is used in the furniture industry also. Furniture manufacturers use a bleach spray to take the color dyes out of wood to create a whitewash finish. An example might be a dark mahogany piece of wood that would normally look real red and dark, but the bleach would remove the dye pigments and the piece of furniture could be finshed a real light color.
That’s so cool, Neil! Thank you so much for adding something extra WONDERful to today’s Wonder of the Day®!
I used bleach before and I got it on my shirt. My shirt turned white.
Lots of people get bleach on their clothes from time to time, Andrew! One time, a Wonder Friend we know accidentally poured bleach onto a whole load of red clothes in the washing machine! YIKES! Some of the clothes got ruined, but some didn’t. We guess some clothes accept bleaching more than others! Thank you for sharing your personal connection to this Wonder of the Day®!
Hey, Wonderopolis. Today’s wonder was good. My clothes have never been bleached. If they have, only like twice.
Thanks for leaving us another awesome comment and for letting us know about your experience with bleach, Dominque! We really like getting comments from you and your Kerrick Elementary classmates…you guys are GREAT Wonder Friends!
This is a good website to go on! My class (Mrs. Krupp’s 3rd grade class.) even does this, and I do it at home (like I’m doing now!)! I didn’t know that other people even bleached their teeth to make them white! It’s a good thinking website to go on, too! Hope you liked the comment!
Of course we liked your comment, Mary! Thank you so much for visiting Wonderopolis at school AND at home! We think that’s GREAT!
This is cool. Is my wonder about satellites going to get published on your website?
Hi, Asher! We take suggestions for future Wonders of the Day from our Wonder Friends very seriously, and we consider each request very carefully. It takes a while to create a Wonder of the Day®, from the suggestion or idea, all the way to the finished product! We have LOTS of great Wonders coming up! We bet there will be one about satellites in there sometime soon…THANK YOU for suggesting it!
Dear Wonderoplios,
I think tomorrow’s Wonder of The Day is going to be about pyramids! I read about the next wonder a long time ago! I love the stories and everything that you guys post! See you WONDERing!
Sincerely,
Leilani A. Sarlea
We WONDER if you are right about tomorrow’s Wonder, Leilani! You and a few other Wonder Friends have guessed what you think it might be about. We can’t tell you what it’s going to be yet, but we can tell you that at least ONE of you guys is correct!
I loved it and so did my class “Mrs. Shoemaker’s 4th grade class.”
Thank you for letting us know you liked this Wonder of the Day®, Callie! We’re so happy to get to hear from you and your class! We hope you all have a WONDERful day!
Dear Wonderopolis,
That was really interesting! I never wondered how bleach worked before. I think tomorrow’s wonder will be about space. Happy Friday!
XOXOXOXOXO,
Paige
Hello, Paige! We’re so glad you left us this comment and that you learned some new facts about bleach by visiting this Wonder of the Day®! Thanks for being such a SUPER Wonder Friend!
Can you do a wonder about pancakes?
Hi, Coolman! A Wonder of the Day® about pancakes sounds like a GREAT idea! Thank you for suggesting it! If you like pancakes, we think you might also enjoy these past Wonders! One is about French Toast (another yummy breakfast food) and the other is about Maple Syrup (something that goes great on both pancakes AND French Toast)!
Wonder #88 – Where Does French Toast Come From? http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/where-does-french-toast-come-from/
Wonder #159 – How Do You Tap a Maple Tree? http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-you-tap-a-maple-tree/
I have heard that people can die there with bleach. Thank you for telling me all about that website. I really learned a lot about it. Have a good day!!!!!!!!
Hi, Zoey! We think it’s AWESOME that you explored the link about coral bleaching and learned a lot. That makes us super happy!
Bleach can be VERY dangerous if not used properly, or if kids use it without their parents’ knowledge. It’s SUPER important for everyone to be really careful when using bleach, and for kids to ask a parent or other grown-up to watch them and/or help them when they are around bleach or using it for the activity link projects found in this Wonder. We want all of our Wonder Friends to stay safe…we care about you!
Bleach is dangerous.
Great point, Wonder Friend David! Safety is very important when we’re dealing with chemicals of any kind, including bleach!