ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Dishwashing soap

Okay kiddo, let's talk about dishwashing soap. You know how after we eat, we need to clean our plates, spoons, cups and everything else we used for eating? Well, dishwashing soap helps make that cleaning easier and faster.

Dishwashing soap is a liquid that comes in a bottle and we use it to make bubbles in a sink or a bowl of water. These bubbles help to loosen up the food, grease and anything else that's on our dirty dishes.

When we add dishwashing soap into the water, the soap mixes with the water to create tiny little bubbles. These bubbles have special ingredients called "surfactants", which help to break down the fats and oils that are in the food scraps or any other dirt that's on our dishes.

Once the bubbles are on our dirty dishes, they get to work right away. They attach themselves to the dirt and grease and lift them off of the surface of the dish. This is because the surfactants in the bubbles help to break up the dirt into smaller pieces, making it easier to wash away.

We then use a sponge or scrubber to help clean the dishes by rubbing the surface of the dish gently. The little bubbles that got attached to the dirt also help to create a smoother surface between the dirty dish and the sponge, making it easier to remove any remaining grease or dirt on the dish.

Finally, we rinse the dishes with clean water to get rid of any soap or dirt that's left. This leaves our dishes sparkling clean and ready to be used again.

So, that's what dishwashing soap is, buddy. It's a special liquid that helps us clean our dishes by attaching to the dirt and lifting it off with the help of little bubbles.
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