Fire in the water!

A candle

MATERIALS :

1. A candle (Should be small but thick)

2. A bowl

3. Some water

A bowl

INSTRUCTIONS :

1. First put the candle inside the bowl. Make sure that the candle stays standing inside the bowl.

2. Now pour some water into the bowl and fill it just right under the top of the candle so that it can be put on fire.

3. Now observe what happens.

RESULT :

Fire in water

You will surprisingly see that the candle didn’t go out even when its top is lower than the water level.

EXPLANATION :

When the candle is light it starts to melt down. The melted liquid wax is lighter than the water. So it floats on the water. When the melted liquid wax touches the water it becomes solid again because the water is cooler than the liquid candle. The heat in the liquid wax transfers to the water when it touches the water and hence it becomes solid again. With this process a thin layer of wax is created in the water. The longer the candle is on fire the more this layer will produce. This layer will work like a dam or a wall and prevent the water from coming inside the wax layer. That’s why the candle will light until the end.

MORE EXPERIMENTS FOR YOU :

1. Try this experiment using hot boiled water (100 degrees temperature).

2. Try the experiment using multiple candles in one bowl.