how does soap work if we put it on our hands and then take it off immediately? It doesn’t soak in like hand sanitizer
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The soap basically acts as a magnet for all the oils and everything else in your hands. You then rinse the soap which is holding all of the stuff that was on your hands off.
The main mechanism of soap is binding to fat molecules. When it is cleaning grease off, it binds to those molecules and then you rinse them away. The same mechanism works for on the lipid(fat) layer of bacteria and viruses. That layer gets stripped away, which is like ripping off their skin, then all the internals just fall out, and the bacteria or virus is killed.
On the topic of bacteria killing. Check out [CloseIntel](https://youtube.com/@CloseIntel) on YouTube. Shows the microbiology and what alcohol and bleach does at the microscopic level to bacteria.
Soap is polar. Think of it this way, one pole of each soap molecule grabs onto the oils/fat, the other pole grabs the water. Then when you rinse the soap washes away taking the fats/oils down with it.
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