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Why do candles burn out? |
by Brian Griffin (whyzz writer) >> more about the author
Mind Your Beeswax
Many candles, especially those used in churches, are made from beeswax. That’s the hard plastic-like stuff that bees make! Beeswax is preferred because it doesn’t smoke too much and it doesn’t drip a lot.
Bees need one important ingredient to make the wax: Honey! They eat the honey and create the wax, which they then push out through tiny openings in their bodies. (Kind of gross, right?) It’s a good thing they do, because beeswax has helped people for thousands of years!
Besides candles, people have used beeswax to make medicine, jewelry, sculptures, make-up, special coating for foods like cheese, and wax to help style hair. It really does a lot! Do you have any beeswax products in your home? Bees might be scary because they can sting you. Sometimes people can have terrible allergies to bees, but for the most part, it’s really good bees are around because of all the uses we have for their wax! And we get to enjoy their tasty honey too!
Candles use flames from fire to give us light, so when a candle burns out, it’s because the fire can’t burn any longer. In order to make a flame, there needs to be three things: fuel, heat and oxygen (a common gas that is found the air). If we take away any one of those things, a fire will go out!
If we blow out a candle, our breath cools the air around the flame. This takes away the heat and the fire can’t burn!
The fuel for a candle is the wax. Grown-ups will use a match to light a special rope, called a “wick”, which sits in the middle of the wax. The heat melts the wax, and then the wax travels up the wick to fuel the flame. If the candle runs out of wax, there is no fuel, and the fire can’t burn!
If you’ve been to a church, you might have seen someone using a strange tool to put out candles. This tool is called a “candle snuffer” and it works by stopping oxygen from getting to the flame. A candle snuffer looks a like an upside-down metal cup on the end of a stick. Putting the cup over the flame stops new air from getting to the candle. All of the oxygen inside the cup is used up and then without any new oxygen, the fire can’t burn any more. The candle burns out!
It may seem like flames are really easy to put out, but often they are very dangerous and can get out of control very quickly. Always let grown-ups handle anything that involves fire.
If we blow out a candle, our breath cools the air around the flame. This takes away the heat and the fire can’t burn!
The fuel for a candle is the wax. Grown-ups will use a match to light a special rope, called a “wick”, which sits in the middle of the wax. The heat melts the wax, and then the wax travels up the wick to fuel the flame. If the candle runs out of wax, there is no fuel, and the fire can’t burn!
If you’ve been to a church, you might have seen someone using a strange tool to put out candles. This tool is called a “candle snuffer” and it works by stopping oxygen from getting to the flame. A candle snuffer looks a like an upside-down metal cup on the end of a stick. Putting the cup over the flame stops new air from getting to the candle. All of the oxygen inside the cup is used up and then without any new oxygen, the fire can’t burn any more. The candle burns out!
It may seem like flames are really easy to put out, but often they are very dangerous and can get out of control very quickly. Always let grown-ups handle anything that involves fire.
Mind Your Beeswax
Many candles, especially those used in churches, are made from beeswax. That’s the hard plastic-like stuff that bees make! Beeswax is preferred because it doesn’t smoke too much and it doesn’t drip a lot.
Bees need one important ingredient to make the wax: Honey! They eat the honey and create the wax, which they then push out through tiny openings in their bodies. (Kind of gross, right?) It’s a good thing they do, because beeswax has helped people for thousands of years!
Besides candles, people have used beeswax to make medicine, jewelry, sculptures, make-up, special coating for foods like cheese, and wax to help style hair. It really does a lot! Do you have any beeswax products in your home? Bees might be scary because they can sting you. Sometimes people can have terrible allergies to bees, but for the most part, it’s really good bees are around because of all the uses we have for their wax! And we get to enjoy their tasty honey too!