Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Does different types of stains washed with the same detergent affect the result after a wash? How or why does this happens? How does stains get removed?

E_Wang13 wrote:Does different types of stains washed with the same detergent affect the result after a wash? How or why does this happens? How does stains get removed?

I see you have completed your experiments. So you should know the answer to the first question better than I do.

You can read about how detergents work at many places on the web; here are a few roughly in order of increasing difficulty:

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/detergents.html

http://laundry.about.com/od/definitions ... ctants.htm

http://chemistry.about.com/od/howthings ... entfaq.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detergent

If you have more specific questions after reading some of these, please feel free to post again. We are eager to help.