Lighting a Candle Using Smoke
Here’s a fun chemistry trick to wow your friends or impress that special someone (ideally after eating a dinner involving said candlelight).
Fire is hungry. It wants oxygen, heat and fuel. Oxygen is the easy part. When a candle is lit, the heat vaporizes liquified wax as it flows up the wick, and that vapor burns. When you blow out a candle, there’s still enough heat to vaporize the fuel, drifting up in the smoke. You’re just missing the heat.
That’s where the lighter comes in. Voilà! You just lit a candle using its vapor trail.
For more on fire, check out the winning video from the Flame Challenge, explaining what’s in a flame in easy-to-understand terms.
(Found on r/chemicalreactiongifs. For directions on how to do this yourself visit Steve Spangler Science!)
Source: stevespanglerscience.com
