cleaning keyboards in the dishwasher

[Pete Turnbull]

On Jan 9 2006, 12:32, der Mouse wrote:

> Sand, no, but silicon dioxide, quite possibly.  (Not all silicon
> dioxide is sand.)  In sufficiently fine particles, it won't hurt
> anything - consider that polishing agents are basically just
abrasives
> on a very fine scale.

Different sort of polishing, though.  You're thinking of things like
jeweller's rouge, metal polish, etc.  The small amount of SiO2 that
could be included in a normal dose of dishwasher powder would be pretty
pointless, I'm sure.

> > Detergent, on the other hand, does not react with oils, it works
like
> > soap to mix with free oily substances and water.
>
> I've heard that that's not actually true, that detergents actually
> cleave fats and oils, digesting them, if you will - that that's the
> difference between detergents and soaps, in fact.  But that was afrom
a
> relatively non-authoritative source; anyone here actually know the
> chemistry of detergents and how they differ from soaps?

I was oversimplifiying, I admit; there is a difference, yes.  It's not
an area I could claim to be a real expert on, though.

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York