A Chemical Explanation Of Candles

Even though electric lights are essential for everyday life, it is definitely possible to survive a couple of hours or days without them. How you may ask? That would be by simply using a candle and a lighter. Candles were invented thousands of years ago by the Romans. Nowadays, candles have multiple uses like celebrations and scents. Just like everything else in this universe, there’s a chemical explanation behind candles. First, let’s discover what candles are made up of. They consist of the fuel which is the wax, and the wick. In the US for example, companies use stearic acid, beeswax and a large amount of paraffin to make the wax of candles. Paraffin comes from crude oil, it’s a dense hydrocarbon. On the other hand, the wick of

. This is a result of a continuing cycle between hot and cold air. The flame of a burning candle will heat the air around it, and since hot air is less dense than cold air it will rise up. However, the cold air with higher density will move down to get heated. When the cold air gets heated it will replace the hot air that has cooled down. This cycle repeats itself resulting in an elongated flame shape. Gravity also has a role in the shape of the flame, it causes the hot air to go up. Nonetheless, in a microgravity environment the less dense air does not have to replace the lighter dense air. Therefore, flame will take the shape of a sphere. Convection, conduction and radiation are the procedures that carry heat in different directions at once. The candle’s flame releases heat in all directions by radiation. The process that takes heat down to melt the wax around the wick is called conduction. However, convection takes the wax out of the wick and draws in oxygen from the air to the bottom of the flame. It If the wick gets additional or less air than needed, it will produce black unburned particles of carbon (soot) on the inside edges of the