How Does Water Hardness Affect Soap's Dissolving Ability?

Grade:

11

Teacher:

Tayde Lund

My project involves mixing different types of water with different types of soap to see if there is a correlation between the water's hardness and the soap’s dissolving and foaming abilities. I chose this project because I have always been interested in chemistry and have noticed the difference in water hardness between reverse osmosis water and tap water. Out of the waters that I used (hard, soft, reverse osmosis), soft water had the highest foamability. Foam stability was the lowest with soft water. My project helps us determine what types of waters to use for everyday things (cleaning) in our everyday lives.

Project presentation

Research paper