A substance used for washing and cleansing purposes, usually made by treating a fat with an alkali, as sodium or potassium hydroxide, and consisting chiefly of the sodium or potassium salts of the acids contained in the fat.
In other words, it's how dudes clean up!
(it was also a funny TV show)
Soap!
I love your educational posts so much.
ReplyDeleteEspecially the illustrations that go along with them.
Amazing pictures!
ReplyDeleteLove them all.
I can only say this: O-M-G!
ReplyDeleteModernly, very few products actually contain soap. Most cleanser are detergents rather than soap as true natural soap leaves behind soap scum. Detergents lather better and wash off far more cleanly.
ReplyDeleteExactly, this occurs because most natural soaps are carboxylate salts which are soluble when the cation is Na for example, but are insoluble when the cation is a rare earth metal (like the Ca or Mg found in hard water). However, most synthetic detergents are sulfates of some sort, and sulfates salts of most metals are soluble and don't precipitate out to form scum (unless you shower in water containing large amounts of Ba or Pb ions, which I highly advise against). This can be explained by the relative acidity of sulfonic and carboxylic acids (sulfonic>>carboxylic) but as for the details of the underlying reasons for the difference in willingness to disassociate (intermolecular reactions, probably) I need to hit the books. It's final exam season, and I can't even relax on this blog...
ReplyDeleteyummiii
ReplyDeleteuuuuu! LOVE the post! Where can I found gay nerds like you here in Lisbon?
ReplyDelete