Light a Candle Blow It Out and Light It Again Norway

Summary

thirty-45 minutes

30-45 minutes

Chemistry, Chemic Reaction, Combustion, States of Matter

Svenja Lohner, PhD, Science Buddies

Introduction

There are many occasions to lite candles. When you did, have you always looked closely at the flame? Which part of the candle is actually burning? Can you tell? Is information technology the wick, the solid wax, the liquid wax or something else? In this activity you volition light some candles to find out—no special occasion required!

This activity is not recommended for use equally a science fair project. Skilful science fair projects have a stronger focus on controlling variables, taking authentic measurements, and analyzing data. To find a scientific discipline fair project that is but correct for you, browse our library of over 1,200 Science Fair Project Ideas or use the Topic Choice Sorcerer to become a personalized project recommendation.

Materials

• Adult helper
• Several pocket-sized, narrow, birthday candles
• Matches or a lighter
• Wet sand (or some other non-flammable substance to concur your candles up)
• Dish or bowl for your wet sand or other candle-property substance
• Fireproof work surface area
• Straw
• Bowl filled with water or a fire extinguisher
  

Prep Work

1. Take your materials to a fireproof piece of work area.

2. Make sure yous have an developed helper assist you while doing this activeness.

3. Go on the bowl of water or the burn extinguisher shut throughout the activity in case you demand it.

4. Fix your wet sand or other non-flammable base of operations material in the dish or bowl.

5. Stand up i candle up in your moisture sand or other material, packing it around the candle base to make sure it is secure.

   
   

Instructions

1. With the help of an adult, light a lucifer. Hold the flame shut to the candle'southward wick, but don't touch the wick with the flame.

   What practise you lot observe? Does the candle low-cal?

2. Next touch the candle'southward wick with the flame of the lucifer. Concur information technology at that place for about a second.

   What happens when you impact the wick with the flame?

   If the wick did not ignite, light it now.

3. Lookout the candle burn for a couple of seconds.

   Can you describe the flame? How does it wait?

4. Blow out the candle and sentinel what happens.

   Practise yous encounter white smoke escaping from the wick?

5. Light the candle again and then light some other match. While the match is withal burning accident out the candle. Immediately later hold the flame of the match into the white fume of the blown-out candle, close to the wick simply without touching it.

   What happens? Does the candle light over again? Why or why not?

   
   

6. Blow out the called-for candle. At present stand two candles adjacent to each other in your wet sand (or other material) so that they are secure and will not fall over. They should almost bear upon each other. Light both candles with a match.

   
   

7. While both candles are called-for, point the terminate of a straw to one of the flames. Blow through the straw to extinguish just one of the flames. The other candle should go on burning.

   What happens subsequently yous extinguish one of the candles? Tin can you explain your observation?

   
   

8. Repeat this step several times.

   Practice you always become the same results? Can you tell from your observations which part of the candle is called-for? Why?

Cleanup

Make sure to extinguish all your candles at the end of your experiment. Once the matches are cooled downward, yous can throw them in your regular trash. Make clean upwardly your piece of work area and wash your hands with soap and water.

What Happened?

Could you make a candle's flame jump from one candle to some other? The outset time y'all lit your candle y'all most probable had to touch the wick with the flame of your match. This makes the wick catch fire, which starts the combustion reaction. The wax around the wick starts melting, and information technology is from this liquid wax that vapor is created inside the flame. The wax vapor starts to burn and creates the stable candle flame that you see. When you blew out the candle yous should have seen white fume rising up into the air from the wick. This is the wax vapor, which becomes visible as it condenses into pocket-sized liquid aerosol in the cooler air.

If you touched the wax vapor (white fume) with another flame, the candle should have immediately lit up again. This time you lot didn't even have to touch the wick or another office of the candle. Lighting the vapor is enough to get the candle burning again. When you placed 2 or more candles side by side to each other and blew ane out the called-for candle'due south flame should take reignited the wax vapor of the extinguished i. You might have realized that it is actually quite hard to keep a candle extinguished when information technology is so close to a called-for i. It lights upward again due to the fact that the wax vapor of the diddled-out candle is touching the remaining candle flame. What yous stop up seeing is the candle flame jumping from 1 candle to some other!

Digging Deeper

Whether they are on a altogether cake or dinner tabular array or menorah, almost candles we use today are wax-dipped candles. This manner of candle dates back to the aboriginal Romans. Through the center of the wax runs a wick, which is ordinarily made from cotton or other material that tin absorb liquids well. So how do these ii materials come together to help a candle burn steadily?

A lit candle might seem elementary, merely it is actually an example of a multi-step process resulting in combustion—and the glowing flame you see. Combustion is the issue of a chemical reaction in which oxygen gas reacts with the substance that is being burned. The combustible material in a candle—or its fuel—is the wax. But earlier the wax can go fuel it first needs to become hot enough. To start that heating process, you lot first need to light the wick with another source of burn, such equally a match. As the wick burns downwardly the heat of the flame melts the wax around the wick. Because the wick is absorptive it sucks the liquid wax into the wick and up into the flame. Once the liquid wax gets hot enough, information technology then turns from a liquid into a gas. The hot gas then reacts with the oxygen from the air and is burned, creating the candle flame that we come across. This means that the candle flame is actually created by the called-for wax gas—or vapor—and not by the wick itself or the solid or even liquid wax.

After lighting a candle, information technology might flicker or sputter at first, but then it unremarkably burns fairly steadily. As the rut of the wax vapor flame melts more of the solid wax information technology creates more fuel for the flame to burn. The candle will merely get out one time information technology runs out of wax or oxygen—or gets blown out. After a candle goes out yous can really see the wax vapor escaping every bit a stream of white smoke. If y'all concord a lucifer into that smoke, the candle volition catch burn down again—without fifty-fifty touching the wick!

Ask an Expert

Curious about the scientific discipline? Post your question for our scientists.

For Farther Exploration

• Place three or more candles next to each other. With a straw, blow out ane of the candles, but keep the others burning. What happens to the blown-out candle? Then blow out ii of the candles but proceed ane called-for. Can you see the flame jumping from one candle to another?
• Try the activeness with candles fabricated of methane series or beeswax. Do you get the aforementioned results for these materials every bit well?
• Await at a candle's flame in more particular. Tin can you see that the flame has different colors? Do your own enquiry to discover out why there are different colors. Tin can you observe out which role of the flame is the hottest or coolest?

Activities

Stalk Action

Practise you love playing on a seesaw? Why is it that depending on where you sit on the axle, and the weight of the person on the other side, you either wing upwards into the air or fall downwardly to the footing? And why is it so difficult to perfectly balance the seesaw? Information technology can all be explained with physics! In this activity, y'all will investigate the balancing forces of a seesaw—with a seesaw made of candles! Read more than

Links

• Science Buddies: STEM Activities for Kids
• National Candle Association: Candle Scientific discipline
• American Chemical Society: Flame Out
• Scientific American: Fire-Fighting Foam
• Scientific American: A Candle Seesaw Balancing Act

Careers

Career Profile

Everything in the environment, whether naturally occurring or of human design, is composed of chemicals. Chemists search for and employ new cognition about chemicals to develop new processes or products. Read more

Career Contour

The role that the chemical technician plays is the courage of every chemical, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical manufacturing functioning. Chemical technicians acquit experiments, tape data, and help to implement new processes and procedures in the laboratory. If you lot enjoy hands-on work, then you might be interested in the career of a chemical technician. Read more

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Source: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/stem-activities/jumping-flame

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