How does soap work?
Soap has been around for thousands of years. It is simply made out of an acid and a base. The acid is actually fatty acids. Combined with Triglycerides (a fat that is found inside your blood). Also the base is just Sodium hyperoxide. When these ingredients are mixed together and then the saponification reaction happens. Fatty acids separate from the Triglycerides and fuse to the hydroxide ions. Forming, soap.
When your washing practically anything with soap, it is doing a couple of things: First, it is decreasing the surface tension of the water. Second, it is binding to dirt, oil, bacteria etc. soap has a chain of connected oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen atoms.
One end of this chain is attracted to oils. And the other end is attracted to water. So when you are washing your hands, the lipophilic ends (attracted to oil ends) of the these chains picks up oils and grease adn when you rinse, the hydrophilic ends
(attracted to water ends) of the molecules follow the water. That means you can wash your hand and the soap with not much dirt left.
And that is how a bar of soap works.
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