Why are soaps not suitable for washing clothes with hard water?
Answer:
Soaps are not suitable for washing clothes with hard water because of two reasons:
- Soap reacts with the calcium and magnesium ions present in hard water to form insoluble precipitate called scum. This results in the wastage of soap.
- The sticky scum sticks to the clothes being washed and interferes with the cleaning ability of soap. This makes the cleaning of clothes difficult.