Reasonableness Tests for Dummies - The Freelance Files MMCCLXXXII

Waffle-weave blanket

Are you familiar with the "reasonableness test" concept? It's simple: before you provide an answer to a question or perform a task, ask yourself, "Is my response reasonable?" You could save yourself some embarrassment. For instance, you're making change at your garage sale and someone pays for that six-dollar bicycle with a crisp new ten-dollar bill. Is it reasonable to give them a ten-dollar bill in change? a twenty? Of COURSE not! Well, we don't think MrsBrown performed a reasonableness test before she dashed off a review of a cotton blanket at Kohls.com. 

Here's what Brownie had to say:

"I put them in the washer when I received them, and they shed terribly! Then it got even worse in the dryer! they were washed seperate [sic] from anything else, and I emptied my lint trap 4 TIMES IN 60 MINUTES! It was completely overflowing each time! I had to snake inside my dryer to pull out all the overflowing lint!! WORST PURCHASE I'VE EVER MADE! [EMPHASIS hers]"

At first glance, this seems to be a reasonable response... but it's not. The blanket in question is a "waffle" woven blanket, which is how it keeps you warm. Think about it: a canvas tarpaulin won't keep you warm even if it weighs the same as a loosely woven blanket, because it's the air pockets in the weave that prevent body heat from escaping and canvas is very tightly woven. Because of this physical reality, MrsBrown's blanket is woven loosely enough that every thread is exposed to the air on all sides. Small wonder a bit of lint erodes when the blanket is washed and dried.  The bigger question is, how "serious" is this lint? Well, We bought the same blanket at AnHQ, and we also washed and dried the new item before using it. We also had a full lint trap when the drying cycle was over. But unlike MrsBrown, we performed a scientific test with some simple measurements and math. Here are our results: Our blanket in the full/queen size weighs 5.5 pounds, or about 2.5 kg.  We weighed the lint that came off the blanket on our kitchen scale; it came in at three grams. The blanket lost 3/2500 of its mass in the dryer, or 0.12% of the total.

Unlike our Dumbass of the Day, we don't think that's anything to SCREAM about.

SE - ARITHMETIC