Question

People use a variety of methods to wash clothes. Usually after adding the soap, they ‘beat’ the clothes on a stone, or beat it with a paddle, scrub with a brush or the mixture is agitated in a washing machine. Why is agitation necessary to get clean clothes?

Answer 1

Agitation necessary to get clean clothes:

• A soap molecule generally consists of two parts i.e hydrophobic and hydrophilic, with the help of which, it gets itself attached to the grease or dirt particle and forms a cluster called a micelle.
• These micelles tend to remain like a colloid, so to remove these micelles you need to agitate your clothes as described above.
• Agitation is mainly necessary for cleaning clothes as it helps to get rid of oil, grease, and other impurities trapped inside the soap micelles.
• By the process of beating or agitation, the particles are separated from the surfaces of the clothes and fall into the water, which helps in effectively cleaning the clothes.

Thus, the reason why is agitation necessary to get clean clothes has been explained above.