Experiments
EX-001
Washing the Same Piece Forty Times
To find out where it stops changing
Result
Concluded
One piece was washed forty times under identical conditions to find the point where it stopped changing. It stopped at eleven, which was earlier than anyone guessed.
The Question
Everyone in the studio had an opinion about how many washes it takes for a piece to settle. The opinions ranged from five to thirty, which means nobody knew.
Method
One piece, one machine, one detergent, one temperature, forty cycles, measured and photographed at every fifth cycle against the same reference.
Result
Measurable change stopped at cycle eleven. Cycles twelve to forty produced differences smaller than the measurement error, which is to say none.
| Cycle | Change from previous |
|---|---|
| 1-5 | Large, expected |
| 6-10 | Small, decreasing |
| 11 | Last measurable change |
| 12-40 | None beyond measurement error |
What It Changed
The care copy stopped implying that a piece keeps improving indefinitely. It settles, and then it is what it is, and saying so is more useful than a promise that cannot be observed.
A single sample proves nothing about every piece and everything about the fact that the studio had been guessing. That was the finding worth having.
Method
- Hypothesis
- A piece settles somewhere between five and thirty washes.
- Method
- Forty identical cycles, measured every fifth.
- Sample
- One piece. Not enough to generalise, enough to stop guessing.
- Controls
- Same machine, detergent, temperature, reference light.
- Result
- Settled at eleven.
- Verdict
- Adopted. Care copy rewritten.