Candles are useful for many things; light, for instance, they can also make a room smell nice, and they can definitely set the mood, but we are not setting the mood today.

Candles can certainly set the mood, but that's not what we're doing today! Ray Petelin

We are going to do science with a candle.

Before we get to a cool experiment, let's talk about how a candle works. For a flame to stay lit, it needs fuel and oxygen. The wick actually wicks up melted wax and pulls it into the flame. There, it breaks the wax down into wax vapor, which mixes with the flame to keep it burning.

The wax is the fuel that mixes with oxygen.

This seems pretty simple to keep the candle going, but our experiment will begin when we blow the candle out!

When the fire is extinguished, there is a little tra

See Full Page