This is less than half of what the penny could withstand before the soap. Based on our data, (30 before soap and 12 after soap) we can conclude that soap reduced the surface tension, hence, the penny could not hold as much water droplets because the water droplets could not stand on top of the penny as well as …show more content…
It is crucial for us to understand the effects of soap on a water habitat and lessen our use of soap. When soap runs off into rivers, lakes or oceans, it causes a lot of disruption in the habitat as well as the habitants. Through this experiment (part C) we saw the negative effects of soap on water. When looking on a bigger scale, the consequences are deadlier. Soap reduces the surface tension of water by more than 50 percent (30 drops with no soap and 12 drops after soap). If soap were to make its way on to water bodies it would result in many objects, and even organisms to sink. A well-known organism, the water strider, is known to walk on water. If the surface tension of water were to decrease because of soap, the mosquitos and flies the water strider feeds on, would sink, as the strider itself would do so as well and would none the less die, causing the population to decrease. Not only would that impact themselves but all the other organisms that depend upon this organism for survival. As this chain goes on, the whole aquatic ecosystem population as a whole, would experience a severe