Question

Science 0 carbon and its compound difference between soap and detergent

Answer 1

soaps are the sodium or potassium salt of long chain hydrocarbon

on the other hand detegents are the sulphonated long chain hydrocarbon eg lauryl alcohol sulphonate

moreover soaps dont work with hard water as the form white precipitate called scum which interfere in the cleansing action of soap  the scum is formed due to rxn of soap with ca2+ or mg2+ ions

whereas no such scum is formed in case of detegents

so thats why we can actually use hard water to test whether  the sample is soap or detergent