The Science of How a Candle Burns

Have you ever looked at a candle's flame and wondered the chemistry is behind that glow?
When you light a candle’s wick the reaction begins. At the base of the wick, the flame is HOT - over 500º C. This melts the solid wax into a liquid that the absorbent wick sucks up into the flame, where the hydrocarbons get so hot they vaporize into a gas. The gaseous hydrocarbons react with oxygen in the air to form carbon dioxide and water vapor and then release the energy in the form of heat and light. This reaction is called combustion.
Let’s try some experiments to see how this works in practice.
#chemistry #candle #science
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[@llnewbold]

Searched for this while high. Completely satisfied.

[@s.h.g.record9527]

Me too😭😭😭 I was searching for comments to see if anyone is high

[@kizunadragon9]

one of humankinds oldest inventions, the candle is still a wonder of chemistry.

[@spudjackson9146]

🤓

[@Nasser-bp6qf]

​@@spudjackson9146🐵

[@chelleb.9759]

Chemistry classes should be as practical as this. Makes it more relatable for students.

[@sooryanarayanan4273]

Wow, I never thought that it must be this complex

[@DNYLNY]

Wow this whole time I thought the wax was meant to melt slowly so the fire lasted longer. Didn't know until now the wax is actually a fuel.

[@saminmahmud6049]

I learned a lot about candles thank you for this video

[@roblowe4803]

Thank you. Answered my question exactly.

[@eryu8263]

Awesome video. Please make many many more! Thanks!

[@Ruktiet]

Can’t believe I passed applied engineering chemistry never having seen how a candle works…

[@TheCompleteGuitarist]

I am not a scientist nor even a science teacher, but as an english teacher I teach science and I am I'd like to think interested and intelligent enough to understand this. I am going to use this in my class to illustrate the three basic states of matter but I need to get this straight in my head.
The match starts the wick burning which heats the *solid* wax creating *liquid* wax which is absorbed by the wick. The heat then evaporates the wax and creates wax vapour *gas* which is finally subject to combustion in the flame producing I suppose CO2, and water vapour. What happens to the wick, does it burn as (mostly invisible) carbon smoke?

[@Mythic479]

Google would probably be better source than me but I can tell you at least that sounds right.

[@jasonchangdalekrule]

If I had to guess, the wick's ignition temperature is probably lower than the vaporization point of the wax. Thus, as long as liquid wax is flowing into the wick, the heat in the wick goes to vaporizing the wax (and that wax vapor goes on to produce the candle flame)

[@mangalakanthamani7142]

Extremely well explained and clearly

[@brycewilliams9968]

So all y’all had the same 3am thought huh.

[@beforedrrdpr]

It helped me for my class, thanks

[@abbeywalker2493]

really interesting

[@counternexus3410]

that was fucking sick

[@lotachukwueze6644]

Thanks alot for this tutorial.
Please Can I use this video for an explanation in my channel?

[@thedailybeaker6037]

Now I have to buy candles cuz science

[@arshadhussaindayo-jd3id]

Very nice 🙂 video

[@andylordy177]

awesome

[@DandyAndy1472]

2:25 what is that on the spoon? Half unburnt wax and half soot?

[@yodavizion]

Everyone watching this is high af 😂

[@thewave5536]

Epic

[@JiaBhatia]

If the melted wax converts into gas , then why do we see drops of it travelling down the candle and collecting at the bottom?

[@River_dawg]

@randomartSs Due to the heat of the flame the wax melts at a faster rate than the rate at which the wick absorbs and combusts the melted wax.

[@skinnyfrog1399]

Where does the wax go

[@ziaurrehman762]

Thank you very much for uploading this knowledge. May ALLAH bless you more and more.

[@A19th]

Ameen

[@spudjackson9146]

mashalllah brother

[@theplaylistpsycho]

Great recap of elementary chemistry

[@anilkumarsharma8901]

Put this candle on weight machine
Found out the rate of change of mass defect per second measures by NASA and black holes calculations so we found out that fundamental design of universe per second

[@Cam223_12]

Did anyone else think that it stayed on the Wick because the wick is dry?

[@johnp.6692]

So in a nutshell

[@bmp3m]

So basically the wax helps the flame keep burning without using up much of the wick thats good to know

[@anilkumarsharma8901]

America walone merey research👌 karwavo jo duniya following👌 karegi to next🚕 economy tumhara ban jayegi😇😝