Why are bubbles important to washing detergents?

Question

Why are bubbles important to washing detergents?

Answer 1

Bubbles play important role to washing detergents because the sun's rays as they enter in through the bubbles serve as prisms and they help a lot to remove the foul odor from the clothes as well as the hard to remove dirts.

Answer 2

for people, bubble bath is more fun than plain soap and water.

for clothes, the bubbles make laundry not boring.

Answer 3

Works like placebo. We thought more bubbles makes our soiled clothes more clean.

My parents (both chem. engr's), have always debated on this until one day we came across a TV show debunking the bubble myth.  

Answer 4

they'll make you bubbly rather than moping on washing the clothes..hehe

** is this a serious question? why am i getting td's? c'',)

**

great answer bamboo!!

Answer 5

They aren't.  They are just there to show you you have bought something with your money.

Phosphates clean.  Not bubbles.

Answer 6

bubbles are important to make sure that you poured a Tide and not Liwayway gawgaw!!! as simple as that!

Answer 7

Have you ever wondered why we wash our clothes in detergent but wash our hands in soap?  What’s the difference?  Soap has molecules that surround the dirt and oil on your hands and then they get washed away with water.  Detergent is soap plus things called builders that reduce the hardness of the water.  Hard water is a problem because of calcium and magnesium ions in it.  These ions bond with soap to make a greasy film that is called soap scum.  This causes the soap to not bubble as well and makes it harder to rinse off.  

For a long time, people used phosphates as builders.  Phosphates were the ideal builder; they easily removed the hard water ions.  However, all water that you wash your clothes in ends up in a stream or other body of water.  Algae love to eat phosphates.  This caused a problem know as eutrophication.    What happens during eutrophication is that there is too much algae in the lake.  The algae eat up all of the nutrients in the water and choke off the pond or stream so that no light can get to the bottom.  This kills off the other plants and fish that live in the pond or stream.

No one wanted to wash their clothes in scummy water, so a new builder was chosen called sodium zeolite A.  This zeolite will ion exchange the calcium and magnesium ions (the hard water ions) for sodium ions.  Sodium ions do not interact with soap to form hard water, so your clothes will not be covered in soap scum.  Sodium zeolite A also has the added benefit of not hurting the environment.  If you look on the side of a box of detergent, you might see the phrase “contains no phosphates: contains aluminosilicates.”  

Detergent has a special substance in it called sodium zeolite A which takes the calcium and magnesium ions out of hard water.  These ions prevent the soap in the water from bubbling.  In the hard water, the detergent should bubble better than the soap.  You can determine if your tap water is hard or not by seeing how well soap bubbles in it.

So, what does bubble do?  Bubble indicates the hardness of the water. Which ever one bubbles more would have less hard water-causing ions in it; remember, hard water causes soap scum which makes it harder for the soap to bubble.

Answer 8

Because bubbles determine the effectiveness of the washing solution.  More bubbles, the more it is effective.

Answer 9

That green guy is one smart mother fu*ker.

Answer 10

The only thing bubbles do is indicate whether you have hard or soft water......Bubbles have absolutely no impact on cleaning nor do they indicate the quality of the soap.

About the only "importance" is psychological..... most people feel good when there are lots of bubbles