Why are the tails of phospholipids hydrophobic?

It is not — as the name implies — because the tails “fear water,” it is because there is no attractive interaction between the fatty acidtails and H[math]_2[/math]O molecules. For details, see Wikipedia articles Hydrophobeand Hydrophobic Effect. H... read more

It is not — as the name implies — because the tails “fear water,” it is because there is no attractive interaction between the fatty acid tails and H [math]_2[/math] O molecules. For details, see Wikipedia articles Hydrophobe and Hydrophobic Effect. read more

The hydrophilic head and hydrophobic tail allows the phospholipid bi-layer to rearrange and reassemble itself it there are any damages in it. read more

Therefore, the hydrophobic tails of a phospholipid would want to stay with the oil layer of the salad dressing, while the hydrophilic head of the phospholipid would be attracted to the water layer. It would look like the phospholipid was doing a hand stand in the salad dressing. read more