Question

What is a soap? Name one soap.

Answer 1

Soap is a mixture of sodium or potassium salts of various natural fatty acids and oils, which when used with water show cleansing properties. A soap contains a large, non-ionic hydrocarbon group and an ionic group COO^-Na⁺.
An example for a soap is sodium stearate (C₁₇H₃₅COO^-Na⁺). It is a salt of sodium of fatty acid called stearic acid with a non-ionic hydrocarbon group C₁₇H₃₅, and an ionic carboxylate group COO^- Na⁺.