Now, in diagram B, when we take our pipette that contains our detergent and we release a small amount onto the water, that water breaks its spherical shape, it collapses and spreads out. It flattens out along the surface of the table. The question is why? Well, what exactly is a detergent? A detergent is basically some type of oil that contains hydrophobic non polar sections and hydrophilic polar sections. And when we add our detergent to the water.