Someone must be good at chemistry ...

[blamebrampton]

Is there anyone out there who is genuinely good at chemistry? I have a writer who assures me that using Epsom salts in the bath will cut down on soap scum. This seems crazy to me, because the addition of magnesium to water will harden it, which I would think would lead to more, not less, scum. Am I secretly insane? Am I missing something? Is there a clever cunning trick that means the Epsom salts will harden the water but stop the scum sticking to the bath?

Is there any way of stopping journalists using internet gossip sites as their sole sources of information? Is there any way to make the internet more accurate? Is there any way I can be issued with a blanket immunity to prosecution for throwing things at journalists who say 'No, that's right, it was on the internet!'

Also ...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY marinelle24 ! I hope you have a lovely day!

Comments

[orions-stars.livejournal.com]

I'm not a chemist, so this is a layperson's best guess and explanation.

Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, so when you add it to water you positively charged magnesium ions and the negatively charged sulfate ions. If you've got hard water, you've already got metal ions dissolved in it (like magnesium and calcium) that will react with your soaps and precipitate out of the solution. As I well know, since when I lived in southern California (home of hard water), we ended up with calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate deposits (limescale).

My best guess for WHY the epsom salt would work is that you're adding a significant amount of sulfate anions to the water (epsom salts are highly soluble). You still have metal ions, but the overall solution becomes less electrolytically active, so there would be fewer metal ions "available" to react with your soap. However, this would be less effective if you've got really hard water, so people living in different areas could have pretty different results.

Epsom salts are added to baths a lot (they're in most bath salts, I think) and I know that ionizing the water can prevent you from "pruning" in the bath because your skin absorbs less water (therefore not something to do if you have dry skin). Other than that, I can't see why it would hurt to try it.