Soap

[T-Bone]

I was just thinking......how does a bar of soap work? I dont get how it cleans

[Chariot]

They use some o' 'dem new-fangled 'chemicals' to kill bacteria.

[Chakra]

Its all to do with oil. Oil comes out of our skin naturally, and its hard to remove with just washing with water. Oil also clings things to it, such as dirt...making one dirty.

Soap acts as a binder, microscopic handcuffs between water and oil. You wash the water with soap, the soapy water connects with the oil on your skin. Vigourous rubbing later, and when you wash off the water, the oil comes with it. Soap also 'thins out' water, stopping water from binding with itself (like a raindrop for instance), so the water spreads thin and into all the nooks and cravices.

Try it sometime!

[mxyzptlk]

Actually, it's the suds that do all the work.
The bar of soap is made out of something (not sure what) that interacts with water by forming suds. The suds then trap dirt and grime, and when rinsed, the trapped grime is loosened and comes off easily.

Edit: Chakra explained it much better.

[Blue-ninja]

Fill a bowl with water, sprinkle pepper in it, and lather your finger with soap and stick it in there. The result of what you see is the oil pushing outwards.

[Graham]

Fill a bowl with water, sprinkle pepper in it, and lather your finger with soap and stick it in there. The result of what you see is the oil pushing outwards.

You caught me on a relaxing Friday afternoon. I am very susceptible to ideas in this environment...

PS Does this little trick work with liquid soap?

[Blue-ninja]

Not sure. Liquid soap or antibacterial soap isn't made of the same material as normal soap, but try it anyway.

[FliesLikeABrick]

Not sure. Liquid soap or antibacterial soap isn't made of the same material as normal soap, but try it anyway.

yes, it should work just the same.


It isn't the oil pushing outwards, it is the soap reducing the surface tension of the water

[Blue-ninja]

It's still kinda fun to imagine the peppers as filthy little swimmers swimming away from a bar of soap...

[VijchtiDoodah]

Fill a bowl with water, sprinkle pepper in it, and lather your finger with soap and stick it in there. The result of what you see is the oil pushing outwards.

Better yet, fill a bowl with milk, then place one drop each of a different food coloring around the edge.  Place one drop of soap in the middle, watch.

[A]

To make soap, first we render fat. The salt balance has to be just right, so the best fat for making soap comes from humans. Lye is the crucial ingredient. The lye combined with the melted fat of the bodies makes a thick white soapy discharge.

[Cookie.]

The phospholipids from the soap form a solvation sphere around the outside of dirt particles.  It does this because the hydrophobic forces from water cause it to form a micele thing which surrounds the dirt particle.  It does this to keep its hydrophobic tails away from the water, thus isolating dirt particles to help carry them away!

I think it happens that way, but that was based on my memory of biochemistry.

-=Edit
Wiki had a picture

[Will]

the easier way to say that is that water is always kinda charged up. so the ions bind with dirt and helps getting the dirt away.

here's an idea:

try to find a plastic stick or something and an ordinary rag and just rub the stick with the rag. Easy as spanking the monkey...  then open the tap and let the water running.  while the water is running bring the staticaly charged stick to the running water and see what happens.

For those of you who are too lazy, the water stream from the tap will "bend " towards(or away, not sure about that) the stick...

[Cookie.]

the easier way to say that is that water is always kinda charged up. so the ions bind with dirt and helps getting the dirt away.

here's an idea:

try to find a plastic stick or something and an ordinary rag and just rub the stick with the rag. Easy as spanking the monkey...  then open the tap and let the water running.  while the water is running bring the staticaly charged stick to the running water and see what happens.

For those of you who are too lazy, the water stream from the tap will "bend " towards(or away, not sure about that) the stick...

But he was asking about how soap works :\

[mxyzptlk]

The lye combined with the melted fat of the bodies makes a thick white soapy discharge.

...
Why does that sound so wrong?

[Cookie.]

The lye combined with the melted fat of the bodies makes a thick white soapy discharge.

...
Why does that sound so wrong?

I think discharge pretty much does it.  But when combined with thick, white, and soapy.........