Phospholipids have a lipid tail. This is non-polar and therefore hydrophobic (water hating). The phosphate head is polar and hydrophilic (water-loving).
Lipids, specifically phospholipids, are hydrophobic like the interior of the plasma membrane. The tails of phospholipids are non-polar and repel water, making them ideal for forming the hydrophobic interior of the membrane.
they have a polar head and non-polar tails
phospholipid molecules....they have polar hydrophillic head(like water-as there is phosphate group attached on it..phosphate group has oxygen molecules with all their pairs of unshared electrons.) and hydrophobic tails(scare water)
Phospholipids
The term that describes substances with both water-loving (hydrophilic) and water-fearing (hydrophobic) properties is "amphipathic." Amphipathic molecules, such as phospholipids, have hydrophilic heads that interact with water and hydrophobic tails that repel water, allowing them to form structures like cell membranes. This dual nature is crucial for many biological processes, including membrane formation and protein interactions.
Hydrophobic
Lipids, specifically phospholipids, are hydrophobic like the interior of the plasma membrane. The tails of phospholipids are non-polar and repel water, making them ideal for forming the hydrophobic interior of the membrane.
they have a polar head and non-polar tails
phospholipid molecules....they have polar hydrophillic head(like water-as there is phosphate group attached on it..phosphate group has oxygen molecules with all their pairs of unshared electrons.) and hydrophobic tails(scare water)
Hydrophobic means water fearing tails and hydrophilic means water loving heads First of all, these terms are involved when you are looking at the cell membrane. The structure of the cell membrane is called a phospholipid bilayer. Which means that the cell membrane is actually made to two layers and not one. If you take a look at the image, you will see that the little white sphere shaped objects are the hydrophilic heads, and the two little string-like objects attached to the hydophilic heads are the hydrophobic tails. All of the other stuff in the image is all of the extracellular proteins and such. But yes, as the previous answerer said. The hydrophilic heads are on the outer part of the bilayer because they are "water loving". Whereas the hydrophobic tails are on the inner part of the bilayer for two reasons. First, they are hydrophobic or "water fearing" so they will repel water. An example of hydrophobic is oil in water. The oil will form blob-like shapes in the water. Second, the hydrophobic tails also have a somewhat attraction to each other.
The hydrophobic tails of phospholipids face inward toward each other, creating a barrier that repels water and helps maintain the integrity of the cell membrane. The hydrophilic heads interact with the surrounding water, enabling the membrane to remain stable in an aqueous environment. This dual nature allows phospholipids to form a flexible boundary that controls the passage of substances in and out of the cell.
Phospholipids
because we are human human dont have tails
Phospholipids have polar head and non-polar tails. Phospholipids help form cell barriers, like the cell membrane.
they're hydrophobic or "water fearing"
yes, if they felt like it. but they dont tend to do small stuff like that if they dont want. animals are funny that way. Plus they just do it for attention.
Since phospholipids have a hydrophobic tail (does not like water) and a hydrophillic head (likes water) it is best for a membrane structure. For the tail, it's usually bent at one end so phospholipids can attach to each other and usually never separate. Here's a visual representation: For a membrane, the phospholipids connect until they make a circle to sorround what is inside of the cell, but it is a bilayer membrane which means there will be 2 circles of phospholipids which looks like this (ignore the yellow part): Since the hydrophobic part is facing each other, it keeps the phydrophillic parts outside and inside of the cell (look at the link above). That means the water that usually sorrounds the cell cannot get into the cell because the hydrophobic part is in between the hydrophillic part. The one that does not like water will not allow the water to get into the cell.