develop a hypothesis that could explain why a soap created from the acid ch3ch2ch2ch2cooh has poorer cleaning properties than soap made from palmitic acid.
Below is a theory that may explain why such a soap manufactured from the acid does have lower cleaning capabilities than just a component (soap) manufactured from palmitic acid.
Because valeric acid seems to have the chemical formula C5H10O2 whereas palmitic acid does have the composition C15H32O2.
This implies that throughout the instance of palmitic acid, there'll be a continuous stream of hydrophobic compounds, which would also improve the cleaning characteristic by detaching waste from garments, although in the context of valeric acid, the above would be far less.
