Question: What Happens When Soap Is Added to Hard Water

Lab Report

Jack Parks

2/24/14

Lab report

Mr. Sterling

7th Grade science

Question: what happens when soap is added to hard water

In certain parts of the country, minerals like calcium, iron, or magnesium are naturally dissolved in water. Water that has minerals dissolved in it is called hard water. These minerals can combine with soap to create soap scum. In this lab we will make hard water and see how it reacts with soap

Background Info:

Physical change is when a substance changes into another form but does not gain, lose, or change any proprieties. An example of this is pop corn seed popping into pop corn. It still is a seed it just became more eatable.

When an object is subject to chemical change it does change its proprieties and it form. A few examples of chemical change are ice melting into water and metal rusting. When some is subject to chemical change unlike physical change needs to be separated by chemical means if it’s to be changed back.

There are many proprieties to a substance. Some proprieties are volume, mass, color, and luster. If any of these are changed in a substance then it is a chemical change. For example when ice melts it loses volume. To form a precipitate you need to put two substances together and form a new substance that will not dissolve. An example of this is if you mix together vinegar and milk to form a type of glue. A solution is two things mixed together. In our hypotheses we predicted if the mixture will react to the soap and if it will form a solution.

Hypothesis:

If we combine soap with regular water it will dissolve the soap

I think this will happen because soap reacts to water by melting

If we combine soap with water it will foam up
I think this because the same chemicals that dissolve the metals will react to the soap

Procedure:

1.Label three cups soap, water, and hard water

2.Place three table spoons o water into the soap cup and two tablespoons into water and hard water

3.Put ivory soap onto paper and scrape of flakes with a plastic spoon or popsicle sticks

4.Add one tablespoon of flakes to the water in the soap cup and stir till it turns white

5.Make ‘hard water’ by adding two teaspoons of Epsom salt to the water in the hard water cup and stir till no more salt will dissolve

6.Use a dropper to pick up soap solution from the soap cup. Then carefully squirt several droppers full of the solution into a teaspoon until it is full

7.Then pour this teaspoon into the water cup and repeat step 6 again and also put it into the water cup

8.Using the method in steps 1 and 2 add two teaspoons of the soap solution to the hard water

9.Look at the cup’s from the top and sides and record your observations at the top of the following page

Observations:

When we had soap in regular water it looked just like regular water but a little murkier. But when it was in hard water it was chunky and white. When we blew bubbles in the water many bubbles but not the hard water.

Analyze Results:

The soap scum did dissolve as well in water as in the soap

The scum didn’t bubble in water as well as soap

All we did was make a mixture and did not make something totally new

There was no chemical reaction when the soap was added to the hard water

I believe that what happened was a physical change

Drawing conclusions:

My first hypothesis was correct because when I mixed the soap with water I found it did dissolve and became invisible

My second hypothesis was incorrect because when I mixed soap with hard water I found it didn’t dissolve and became chunky

The best explanation for my results is partially correct because my first hypotheses was correct but my second was not