Coming Clean About Soap (and other personal products) | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

I was given this link by my dad....cool read.

http://www.mnwelldir.....c/soap.htm

Soap is one of those things we take for granted. But what is soap, anyway, and how does it work? Who invented it? Does it matter what kind we use?

The answer to the last question is yes, it sure does matter, and that makes it worth knowing more about soap, as well as about the ingredients in our other personal products.

HOW SOAP WORKS

It all begins with water. Why won’t water just wash away dirt? Water molecules are made up of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. The hydrogen atoms are on one side of the molecule and the oxygen atom on the other. The hydrogen atoms each have a single electron, which usually “hangs out” near the oxygen atom, which has eight electrons of its own. This creates a positive charge on the hydrogen side of the water molecule and a negative charge on the oxygen side. The positively charged hydrogen end of each water molecule is attracted electrically to the negatively charged end of other nearby water molecules. This attraction causes countless temporary bonds between water molecules, which are what makes water stick together....

cont. in the link above