Urgent biology question! why does soap break the surface tension of water??

Question

alright so i have a biology lab about water's properties (i know, sounds more like chemistry or something...)and i need to know why soap breaks apart water's cohesion and why ice water has better surface tension. i guess i messed up or something while doing the lab (we had to see how many water droplets of dif. temps would fit on a penny)but it ended up that more hot water fit on it, which i'm pretty sure wasn't supposed to happen. so if you could help me, i'd appreciate it. and if you don't understand what i'm talking about, just ask. or don't. whatever.

Answer 1

Soap molecules disrupt the surface tension of water by crowding around the water surface with their water loving heads which disrupts the waters ability to stay tightly coupled together in a sphere like a rain drop. So in a way it flattens waters ability to remain in this sphere configuration and makes the water molecules flatter thus wetting everything even the smallest crevices.