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sakura | 17:55 Wed 19th May 2004 | Technology
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this kinda comes uder tech, but it's really science: why does soap foam more in tap water than distilled water?
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because the minerals in tap water react with the soap to make the lather. http://www.pbs.org/weta/roughscience/discover/wate
rquality.html#hardness
You'll also notice that in "hard water" areas soap doesn't lather as well. I live in Kent, so near The Downs ( http://www.kentdowns.org.uk/about.html - meaning lots of chalk in the water), and the soap usually takes a while to lather.

Then when I went up North (to a "soft water" area), the soap just seemed to explode as soon as I put it near water :-)... not literally, of course.... interesting....
I give up!! I have just tried to post a chemically correct answer to the question and it was deemed to contain profanities. The culprit was the word 'sc-m' where the dash represents the letter 'u'. This is the correct chemical term for the substance that forms when soap is used in hard water reducing its lathering properties. I suggest you do a google search for soaps and hard water.

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