What happens when a candle is alight?
When a candle is alight, several processes take place. To understand what happens, let's break it down into steps:
1. Ignition: When you light a candle's wick with a match or a lighter, heat is applied to the wick. The heat causes the wax near the wick to melt and vaporize.
2. Evaporation: As the wax melts, it turns into a liquid and starts evaporating. The heat from the burning wick keeps the wax in a liquid state.
3. Combustion: Once the liquid wax turns into a vapor, it mixes with the oxygen in the air. This mixture of flammable vapor and oxygen creates a combustible mixture. When the flame comes into contact with this mixture, combustion occurs. The heat from the flame sustains the combustion process.
4. Wax supply: As the wax vaporizes and gets burned, the heat from the flame draws up more liquid wax through the wick. This continuous supply of liquid wax is crucial to keep the flame burning.
5. Illumination: When the combustible mixture ignites, it produces heat and light. The heat causes the surrounding air to expand, creating flickering movements of the flame. The carbon particles in the flame become incandescent, emitting a yellow glow. This process emits both light and heat.
6. Breathe and sustain: The heat generated by the flame helps maintain the temperature needed to keep the wax vaporizing and burning. As long as there is a constant supply of wax and oxygen, the flame will continue to burn.
It's important to note that the flame of a candle can also produce small amounts of smoke and soot due to incomplete combustion.