How does soap clean our hands and body?
In: Biology
Soap has 2 sides, one side is attracted to dirty stuff, and the other is attracted to water. The soap can thus stick to dirt, then you rinse the dirt+soap away with water.
Dirt on your skin is generally mixed in with the natural oils your skin secretes. Since oil and water don’t mix, just using water to clean it off doesn’t work so well–so you use soap, which basically combines with the oil to form a substance which *does* dissolve in water and can thus be washed off.
Soap is made with lye which binds oil and water particles together. Most “dirt” are greasy and would stick with the oil part. Then you wash them with water and the water part of the soap sticks to it and washes away. 👍🏼
Washing is a mechanical process. Soap is just a surfactant that makes the mechanical process more efficient.
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