If you blow out a candle and then put a lighted match close to the wick (but not touching it), the wick will re-light. Most of us intuitively know this, but have you ever wondered why?
This week we did two simple experiments investigating the science of how candles burn. Both come from a free online Kitchen Chemistry course we’re enjoying.
Experiment 1 – Lighting gaseous wax
What you need
- Candle
- Match or lighter
What you do
Light the candle. Notice how you have to hold the match very close to the wick for a second or two before it ignites. Allow the candle to burn for a few minutes. As it burns, observe what happens to the wax.
Now blow out the candle and quickly hold a lighted match near the wick. This time the wick should easily ignite, even without the flame actually touching it.
Repeat the process a few times, experimenting with how far away from the wick you hold the match.
What’s happening?
When you light the candle, the solid wax melts and liquid wax is drawn up the wick. As the candle gets hotter, the liquid wax evaporates into a gas. This gaseous wax burns in the oxygen of the air.
The gaseous wax remains in the air after you blow out the candle. If you hold a lighted match near the hot wick, the wax ignites and the flame spreads to the wick. If you allow the candle to burn for long enough that it produces a visible white vapour when you blow it out, you can light the vapour from above.
Experiment 2 – Soot on a spoon
What you need
- Lighted candle
- Metal spoon
What you do
Briefly hold the spoon in the candle flame. Remove it and observe what you see on the spoon.
You should see black soot. You may also see a tiny bit of wax. (Don’t worry, it all washes off.)
What’s happening?
As the candle burns, solid wax becomes liquid and then evaporates to become a gas. The gaseous wax burns in oxygen to produce water, carbon dioxide, heat and light.
The burning candle also produces carbon, in the form of the black soot we see on the spoon. It is glowing soot that causes the candle give out light.
If there were enough oxygen to burn all the wax, only carbon dioxide and water would be produced and the flame would be blue, like in a gas burner.
The small amount of wax on the spoon is the unburnt gaseous wax which has condensed on the cold spoon and turned back into solid wax.
Golden gas and solid methane
These experiments are an interesting way to explore states of matter. My kids were surprised to discover that every element can exist as a solid, liquid and a gas.
C(10) wondered if gold can be a gas. The answer is yes – gold boils and evaporates at 2,800°C. And solid gold becomes a liquid at just over 1000°C.
Meanwhile J(9) wanted to know if gaseous bodily emissions can take solid form (and if so could we google photos). He phrased it differently, as you can imagine. This led us to the fascinating topic of solid methane, a source of fuel which exists in very cold conditions at the bottom of the ocean and at the poles.
Trick re-lighting candles
We also wondered how trick birthday candles work – the ones that re-light by themselves after you blow them out.
The “magic” ingredient is usually magnesium in the candle’s wick. When the candle is burning, the magnesium is shielded by the liquid wax being drawn up the wick. But after the candle has been extinguished, the wick is no longer hot enough to draw up the liquid wax. The magnesium is exposed to the wick, which is hot enough to ignite the magnesium The burning magnesium in turn ignites the gaseous wax. This article explains the process very clearly.
Apparently you can see tiny flecks of magnesium going off around the glowing ember of re-lighting candles. I’ve ordered some so we can observe this for ourselves.
Further Resources
Scientist Michael Faraday gave a series of children’s lectures about the chemistry of candles at the Royal 
Institution, London in 1860. You can read an abridged version here.
How does a candle work? (How Stuff Works)
The Mystery of the Periodic Table is a wonderful living book about the history of chemistry. This week we read about the discovery of oxygen, which was the perfect background to our experiments.
Kitchen Chemistry Free online course from the University of East Anglia. (Runs until 26 May 2014.)
Main photo credit: Windliest
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I’m appreciatively linking up here:
Science for Kids at Adventures in Mommydom
After School Linky at The Educators’ Spin On It
Wonderful Wednesdays at Solagratiamom
Weekly Wrap-up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Collage Friday at Homegrown Learners
The Sunday Showcase at Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
Excellent! We’re doing the same course! Thank you for all the extra resources. We’ll have to check them out!
I wondered if you might be, Hwee! I know you guys are fond of MOOCs too 🙂 It’s a good course, isn’t it? I’m finding it just the right level. We didn’t have much luck with the first set of experiments – our bin bag melted before it could take off (perhaps because we have a double toaster?) and I still can’t find the right sort of teabags to make them fly! I was rattling boxes in Waitrose today to try and tell whether they’re individually wrapped!
No, no luck with the first week’s experiments too. 🙁 I don’t know where he gets those teabags. I haven’t seen those in ages! I don’t think anyone on the forum has found them yet. 🙂 He really should have used more readily available brands. I don’t suppose he does the grocery shopping so maybe that’s why he is not aware that the teabag he used isn’t widely available!
Yes, that’s probably it about the grocery shopping! We should ask him to find out from his wife what teabags she buys 😀 If it was an American course I would just think they had extra long teabags over there but he’s in East Anglia!!
An excellent study, as always. I keeping pinning everything you do. LOL
Thank you, Phyllis. I appreciate the encouragement and the sharing!
I was so excited to see this! I just signed up. This course will go great with the study my boys and I have been doing on the elements from http://store.ellenjmchenry.com/?product_cat=elements. She has lots of cool activities and we’ve learned loads about the periodic table. Have you seen the Periodic Table of Videos on YouTube that are made by the University of Nottingham? They have a short video for every element and they do some truly spectacular experiments in some of them along with explaining the characteristics of each element. Plus the professor who does the explanations looks like Einstein! My boys love watching these.
Thanks for resource ideas, Christi! I knew there were cool periodic table videos somewhere but now I know where to start looking. Einstein looky-likies will go down well in this household, too 🙂
I haven’t come across the Basement Workshop Store before – looks good.
We’re not doing any science work that would relate to this, but my kids love anything fire related. (Is that bad to admit?) SMH. Anyway, they would LOVE this. Definitely going to try these. Thanks!!
Yay, Tina – go for it! I’m always surprised how easily we can squeeze in a fun science experiment, no matter what else is going on. (IKWYM – fire is fun. We did the trick re-lighting candles yesterday. They were very cool.)
Oh my, I’m so behind! Little one’s in bed and the older ones are out with their daddy so it’s time to attempt to catch up!
As always, a great science post about a great science topic. We’re learning about fungi at the moment – it somehow doesn’t seem quite as much fun as igniting stuff does!! Can I not just send the children round to yours for science? I could have a quick nap……?
Fungi are fascinating, aren’t they? We haven’t studied them formally but there seemed to be loads around last year year so we found ourselves learning lots. Hmm, I wonder if we can combine fungi and fire…? Send yours round for science and I’ll pop mine down to you for history!
Hmmmm, I thought I’d commented, but I guess this was one of the posts that fell ill to my computer restart.
This looks like such a fun project, and I can just imagine how much fun my boys would have seeing how close they could get without touching the wick when lighting…..
It was a good opportunity to teach my son about how to use matches safely, too. Apparently it’s not instinctive to blow the flame out when it creeps towards the fingers!
I don’t always get around to doing experiments because they require me to gather so many supplies but these two are super simple so I think I’ll give them a try with my kids! Thanks for sharing. Found you on the HHM’s post share.
Thank you, Janelle. Simple, seat-of-the-pants science is definitely the best kind in this slightly-disorganised household!
Wonderful! My daughter was showing us the first trick the other day, so I’m going to show her this post and let her teach her little brother some further information. Perfect. 🙂
Thanks for linking with Collage Friday!
Thank you, Mary! Fire is always a popular subject, isn’t it?! Thank you for hosting the link-up.
I always enjoy reading your blog posts and for the creative inspiration. Thank you.
Thank you Marla. I appreciate your encouragement. 🙂 I hope things are going well in your homeschool.
Super ideas – I can see so many tie ins as well with Christ. Great post. Thank you for linking up! Colleen
Thank you for hosting, Colleen!
You cannot imagine how happy I am to read all of this. It totally brings together our crayon candle that didn’t burn with the black on the bottom of the water balloon we boiled over a candle. We have phase two of the crayon candle experiment ready to go to day – I will read this post and see if we can’t gather the further resources first – thanks!
Crayon candles and sooty water balloons sound fun! I shall have to head over to you again to see what you’ve been doing. (We’re still hooked on chocolate minifigs. :-))
We enjoyed Kitchen Chemistry — the first week was probably our best week of success.
Really, Beth? We completely failed in week one! Did your teabag fly? How cool!
Its really good9
Thanks, Monishka.
Thanks for the helpful and interesting content.
Hi!, Fabulous experiment ideas you shared here. Whatever profession kids are going to opt for in the future, basic maths and science skills will always help them in many fronts of life. Parents need to support and encourage doing at-home, easy science experiments as for kids of all ages, the benefits are enormous. Doing science projects helps develop a child’s resourcefulness, particularly their skills at goal-setting, planning, and problem-solving. It also nurtures intellectual curiosity, helping children acquire new ways of asking questions and understanding the world. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful! My daughter was showing us the first trick the other day, so I’m going to show her this post and let her teach her little brother some further information. Perfect. ?
how wonderful that your children find science fun! Thank you for taking the time to stop by and comment.
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