I just recently stayed at my sister's house and she had a candle burning on her table. I, of course being the nerd that I am, was fascinated with the candle and began to be confused as I couldn't figure out how the candle actually worked. Logically, the string should just burn down to a stub and the flame should go out at the base of the candle. The wax itself is not flammable and if you burn a piece of string by itself, it will char and shrivel up into ash. So, since a candle is nothing but wax and a piece of string, how do candles work? Well, I looked it up and I'm happy to tell ya.
The wick is absorbent and absorbs the melted wax into itself. The heat from the flame turns this liquid wax into wax vapor and that is what actually burns. When you blow a candle out, you see the white smoke left over. This is condensed visible wax vapor. If you were to touch a lit match to the white smoke, it would travel back down and light the candle again. So why doesn't the wick burn? Well, the liquid wax that it absorbs helps cool it and protect it. If you've ever boiled water in a paper cup over a campfire, it works the same way. I have to correct myself. Paraffin wax is combustible but only at much higher temperatures so it just melts from the hear of the flame. So that's how a candle works. Pretty cool huh? Wonder who thought of that.
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