"Drinking candle" experiment

Easy and impressive experiment with candle and water

An in­ter­est­ing ex­per­i­ment that demon­strates the change in the vol­ume of air from heat­ing and cool­ing.

Reagents and equip­ment:

  • a can­dle;
  • wa­ter;
  • a Petri dish;
  • a glass cylin­der;
  • a cig­a­rette lighter.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Pour a lit­tle wa­ter into the Petri dish. Place a can­dle in it. Light the can­dle. Cov­er the can­dle with a glass cylin­der, so the edge of the cylin­der is com­plete­ly im­mersed in the wa­ter. When the can­dle goes out, the wa­ter lev­el in the cylin­der will rise.

Pro­cess­es de­scrip­tion

When the can­dle burns, oxy­gen is ex­pend­ed, and the air in the cylin­der heats up. When all of the oxy­gen is ex­pend­ed, the burn­ing stops and the air cools. The vol­ume of the cooled air is less than the vol­ume of the heat­ed air. As a re­sult, a dif­fer­ence of pres­sures aris­es, which caus­es the wa­ter from the Petri dish to be sucked into the cylin­der.

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Wear pro­tec­tive glass­es and gloves. Don’t con­duct the ex­per­i­ment near flammable sub­stances and ob­jects. Fire-ex­tin­guish­ing equip­ment should be at the ready. Fol­low gen­er­al safe­ty rec­om­men­da­tions. Chem­i­cal ex­per­i­ments must be car­ried out in full com­pli­ance with the leg­is­la­tion of your coun­try.

Warn­ing! Sub­stances of this ex­per­i­ment are tox­ic and high­ly dan­ger­ous for your health. Do not try this at home. Only un­der pro­fes­sion­al su­per­vi­sion.