Why Is Soft Water Slippery
—Joe Zagara, Rancho Santa Fe, California Hard water often has an unpleasant taste, hampers the ability of soaps to dissolve and can cause scaling in pipes. Yet so many of us have grown up with it that we conflate the pleasure of cleanliness with the result of bathing in hard water: feeling “squeaky clean.” But the “squeak” is caused by a film of soap curd—the same residue that accumulates on our shower walls....