Soap

2011-09-24T12:50:00.000-04:00

You know how in old cartoons, an oft-used comic device is soap slipping out of people's hands? Why doesn't that happen anymore?

Recently, I had a bar of soap slip out of my hand, just like it would in an old cartoon. Then, I noticed that it never really happened to me, and I started wondering why. Why is it that soap doesn't appear to slip around as much as it used to?

One possible reason is that soap was perhaps previously made of slightly different chemical compounds than they are today. The oldest recorded uses of soap are in Babylon and Egypt, both of which used animal or vegetable oils. In the 16th century, soaps started to be made out of olive oil and similar substances instead of animal fat, and now soap is made in a variety of different ways. I am no soap expert, but the types of soaps (which are actually salts of fatty acids) may have something to do with the amount of slipping we experience with it.

Another potential factor is the shape of soap bars nowadays. It may be that older soap bars were more rounded at the ends, and therefore harder to grasp. If the soap bars were made in a shape similar to the picture at the top, after some use the bar of soap would become very rounded in the middle. Therefore. if it started to slip out of your hand, and you instinctively grabbed it tighter, it would no doubt slip out of your hand. Some modern soap bars are much flatter, and are indented on the bottom. This allows your hand to completely encompass the soap, and the ends are wider than the middle so it won't slip out.

I admit that this is a rather strange topic for a first post, but I hope it got you thinking. People don't think about the world nearly as much as they should. Its a very interesting place.

Think About It!

Soap