How a candle flame burns

Hey, everybody. Today we're going to take a look at something you've probably all seen before, a candle flame.

You wonder, what makes a candle burn? Is it the wax? Is it the wick? Is it something else?

You can find out by doing a simple experiment. Remember, if you're going to use a flame, you have to have an adult around, a parent, a teacher or some other adult to make sure everything's safe. Don't play with the flame by yourself.

So, here we have a glass jar. I'm just going to put it over the candle. And we're going to watch and see what happens.

Ah. So the flame goes out. But why does that happen?

Well, it's because there's more going on here than just the wax or the wick burning. It needs something else. It actually needs something from the air. It needs oxygen.

If you could look down into the flame, you'd see that oxygen molecules from the air interact with wax molecules and have a chemical reaction. And the products of the reaction, that means the stuff that's produced, is water vapor, carbon dioxide gas, and heat, and light. And that's the flame that you see. It's the energy released from the reaction.

So when you put the jar over the candle, what happens is that the flame uses up the oxygen inside the jar. But then it can't get any more. So since you need oxygen for the reaction, the thing goes out.

There's another way you can put a candle flame out. You can actually use a chemical reaction to do it. It's pretty cool. Let me show you.

All you need is a little bit of baking soda, about a teaspoon or so into this jar, and some vinegar. You've probably all done the vinegar and baking soda experiment before. So you know it's going to bubble. And those bubbles are carbon dioxide gas.

So this jar now has a lot of carbon dioxide gas in it. I'm going to use that. I'm going to pour the gas on the flame and see what happens. Now I'm not going to pour any of the liquid out, just the gas. Let's see.

Now the reason why that happens is because the carbon dioxide is heavier than the air. And it comes out of the jar. And as it flows over the flame, it pushes the oxygen out of the way. So it can't get oxygen anymore.

And just like covering it up with a jar, if it can't get oxygen, the flame goes out. So that's why the CO2 from that reaction puts the flame out. That's pretty cool that you can put a candle out that way.

You, guys, probably have blown candles out. But now you know two ways to make a candle go out using chemistry.