Soap works to keep you clean and smelling fresh

There's a science behind soap that ensures you can get rid of all types of dirt when you wash up, regardless of whether it's muddy or oily. By Paul E Richardson

- Paul E Richardson

Thousands of years ago, our ancestors discovered something that would clean their bodies and clothes.

As the story goes, fat from someone's meal fell into the leftover ashes of a fire. They were astonished to discover that the blending of fat and ashes formed a material that cleaned things. At the time, it must have seemed like magic.

That’s the legend, anyway. However it happened, the discovery of soap dates back about 5,000 years to the ancient city of Babylon in what was southern Mesopotamia – today, the country of Iraq.

As the centuries passed, people around the world began to use soap to clean the things that got dirty. During the 1600s, soap was a common item in the American colonies, often made at home. In 1791, Nicholas Leblanc, a French chemist, patented the first soapmaking process. Today, the world spends about $50-billion every year on bath, kitchen and laundry soap.

But although billions of people use soap every day, most of us don’t know how it works. As a professor of chemistry, I can explain the science of soap — and why you should listen to your mom when she tells you to wash up.

The chemistry of clean

Water (scientific name: dihydrogen monoxide) is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. This molecule is required for all life on our planet.