Calling all people!?

Question

(well at least those who know an answer)

compared to a drop consisting of distilled water, how would the volume of a drop, consisting of detergent and water, vary?

will it be larger or smaller...why?

if anyone could find an answer or even just list some websites it would be really appreciated!

ta

Answer 1

A detergent acts to lessen surface tension.

A drop of water falls off the faucet when the surface tension can no longer hold it there.  For normal water, thats 50mg or so.

With the detergent, that will be lower.  For instance, the surface tension might be able to hold only 25mg.  If that were the case, the drop would be half the weight, thus half the volume, thus about 90% of the diameter.  This is just an example.