That Darn Spot Lab
Jedd, Austin, and Jack
Question:
Do more expensive detergents clean ketchup stains better?
Hypothesis:
The more expensive the detergent is, the better it will perform at removing ketchup stains.
Observations:
- When the detergents were used the results were pretty similar, but Tide slightly outperformed Sun and All.
- Water was the control to compare the detergents to show how much the detergent affects the cleaning.
Conclusion:
It doesn't really matter how much you spend on detergent because they all do roughly the same amount of cleaning.
Take Away
We learned that the soap surrounds the oils and the the soap acts like a mediator, and as the water is moving away from the stain the soap pulls out the oil either dissolving the stain or making the stain smaller. There has to be some attraction between the Ketchup and the cloth, because it is still close to impossible to get out the stain fully. The soap cleans the water because the ketchup is being pulled off of the cloth.