which works best at cleaning grease?

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helpneeded
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Joined: Thu May 10, 2012 5:45 am
Occupation: parent of student
Project Question: which soap works better for removing grease? dish detergent, hand soap, or shampoo. The test that we did to investigate did give clear results. how can we test this? we also need better research.
Project Due Date: 5/14/12
Project Status: I am finished with my experiment and analyzing the data

which works best at cleaning grease?

Post by helpneeded »

Hello, my daughter is doing a science fair project. She has to find out which works best at cleaning grease, shampoo, dish detergent, or hand soap. The experiment that we did didn't give clear results. We need help on coming out with a different way to test it. We ended up using 3 test tubes and adding 4 drops of oil. Next we added water and the diff. detergents.
audreyln
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Re: which works best at cleaning grease?

Post by audreyln »

Here are some recent forum posts that might give you some good resources and ideas for your experiment.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... =26&t=9219

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... =29&t=6728

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... =37&t=6151

Audrey
Craig_Bridge
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Re: which works best at cleaning grease?

Post by Craig_Bridge »

helpneeded wrote:She has to find out which works best at cleaning grease, shampoo, dish detergent, or hand soap.
As I read this with an engineer's perspective and start parsing it, I come up with more questions:
"cleaning grease" from what? using what process? and what results comparison methods?
Is "oil" equivalent to "grease"?
What were your results?

"degreasing" something is usually a process where you transfer the grease onto/into something else to get it off/out of what you want cleaned.
Typically this involves some kind of physical movement of some cleaning/absorbing material, like
1) Presure washer where you use a high pressure spray of a solvent to erode and splatter the grease/oil somewhere else
2) Wiping with towel/sponge to transfer the grease/oil into the towel/sponge
3) Submersion in water and scrubbing/agitating so that the grease/oil floats and can be skimmed off or decanted

Assuming, liquid hand soap...
Let me guess your results, a glass surface with a very small amount of grease was easily cleaned by all of you liquid cleaners so you didn't see any significant difference. Am I close or not?
-Craig
471585
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Re: which works best at cleaning grease?

Post by 471585 »

I am using 3 different soap's to clean oil
tdaly
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Re: which works best at cleaning grease?

Post by tdaly »

Hi 471585,

I'm not sure what your question is. Will you please provide some more details about what your question and hypothesis are? It will make it much easier for us to help you if we know what you are doing.
All the best,
Terik
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