Why does soap and water remove dirt while washing?

Answer 1

Soap is comprised of molecules with a dual personnality. One end is hydrophilic (likes water) one end hydrophobic (repels water). But the hydrophobic end is attracted to oil, and thus binds to non water soluble oil based stain. Once attached to stain molecules, the hydrophilic end ensures that the soap+dirt combination can now be washed away in water. Hence, the cleaning effect.

Answer 2

Vincent and Dac2cheri got it right, partly. Soap does nothing to remove dirt, it goes into a water solution (water is the solvent, dirt is the solute). You can clean with water alone, but it takes a long time. The reason is that water has strong cohesive tendencies, it likes to "stick to itself". Soap merely breaks down this tendency, allowing much more surface area in which to dissolve dirt.

Answer 3

Soap is composed of long molecules that are hydrophobic at one end and hydrophilic at the other. That means they stick to water on one end and oils and dirt on the other - so the oils on your body stick to the soap and it gets washed off your body with the water.

Answer 4

no idea but it is quite conceivable that somewhere, in a safe of a soap manufacturer the plans for a soapless cleaning device exist .