Why does candles burn

See our guide to learn more about what candles are made of and the different types of wax, like our coconut wax candles. Our standard Trimming your wick, keeping a lit candle away from drafts, and other candle care tips will also prolong the life of your candle. Learning how candles work will give you a better appreciation of just how amazing these inventions are. April 5, How Do Candles Work?

How do candles work? Why do candle flames have different colors? Does the type of candle wax matter? Once the liquid wax gets hot enough, it 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 see. This means that the candle flame is actually created by the burning wax gas—or vapor—and not by the wick itself or the solid or even liquid wax.

After lighting a candle, it might flicker or sputter at first, but then it usually burns fairly steadily. As the heat of the wax vapor flame melts more of the solid wax it creates more fuel for the flame to burn. The candle will only go out once it runs out of wax or oxygen—or gets blown out.

After a candle goes out you can actually see the wax vapor escaping as a stream of white smoke. If you hold a match into that smoke, the candle will catch fire again—without even touching the wick! Don't believe it? Then try this activity to see for yourself! Observations and Results Could you make a candle's flame jump from one candle to another? The first time you lit your candle you most likely 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 it 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 you should have seen white smoke rising up into the air from the wick. This is the wax vapor, which becomes visible as it condenses into small liquid droplets in the cooler air.

If you touched the wax vapor white smoke with another flame, the candle should have immediately lit up again. This time you didn't even have to touch the wick or another part of the candle. Lighting the vapor is enough to get the candle burning again. When you placed two or more candles next to each other and blew one out the burning candle's flame should have reignited the wax vapor of the extinguished one.

You might have realized that it is actually quite hard to keep a candle extinguished when it is so close to a burning one.

It lights up again due to the fact that the wax vapor of the blown-out candle is touching the remaining candle flame. What you end up seeing is the candle flame jumping from one candle to another! Cleanup Make sure to extinguish all your candles at the end of your experiment. Once the matches are cooled down, you can throw them in your regular trash. Clean up your work area and wash your hands with soap and water. The flame may flicker or smoke a bit at first, but once the process is stabilized, the flame will burn cleanly and steadily in a quiet teardrop shape, giving off carbon dioxide and water vapor.

A quietly burning candle flame is a very efficient combustion machine. But if the flame gets too little or too much air or fuel, it can flicker or flare and unburned carbon particles soot will escape from the flame before they can fully combust.

The wisp of smoke you sometimes see when a candle flickers is actually caused by unburned soot particles that have escaped from the flame due to incomplete combustion.

Click Here for Candle Research Studies. Above that is a small dark orange-brown section, and above that is the large yellow region that we associate with candle flames. The oxygen-rich blue zone is where the hydrocarbon molecules vaporize and start to break apart into hydrogen and carbon atoms. The hydrogen is the first to separate here and reacts with the oxygen to form water vapor. Some of the carbon burns here to form carbon dioxide.

Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Household Appliances. How does a candle work? Updated: Mar 30, The fuel, made of some sort of wax The wick, made of some sort of absorbent twine. The paraffin vapor flows up the tube and is the fuel for this second flame.

When you blow out a candle, you notice a stream of white smoke leaving the wick. This stream is paraffin vapor that has condensed into a visible form. It continues to form as long as the wick is hot enough to vaporize paraffin. If you touch a lit match to the stream, a flame will run down it and re-light the wick. Candles are mainly made out of paraffin wax, a hydrocarbon and petroleum byproduct, although you can find other types of waxes, like beeswax.

When you light a candle, it produces other chemicals such as volatile organic compounds and toxic gases. Is it the wick or wax that burns?