I have to do a science experiment. It's about if you melt a candle will the mass stay the same will it?

Question

Yeah this summer I have to do a science experiment and mine is about candles. I want to know if I melt the candle will the mass stay the same. Also, I would like to know where could i get a good cheap weight to weigh my candles since I do not have one. Also, I anyone knows any good science experiment web sites please tell. Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

If you were to contain the gases and smoke released from the candle, then yes the mass would remain the same. However, if you just let it burn freely, then the leftover candle will be the weight of the original candle minus the weight of the gases that were given off.

For some cool experiments, try out:

http://krampf.com/experiment_vid.html

Unfortunately, most of the video's require a membership to see, but there are at least a few on that page which are free.

Answer 2

no it will change do the the burning material it al burns with the wick.go to the mall to a kitchen outlet ,they have them from 6$ and up

Answer 3

Ok, just need to verify your definitions, when you say melt a candle, do you mean melt it or burn it? there IS a difference.

Melting the candle will give you the same mass, if you push it beyond melting, the wax will boil and waft out of the pan as a gas, if you captured the gas and any remaining liquid and solid wax plus the wick still in the heating vessel, it will weigh the same.

Burning the candle becomes a combustion reaction, oxygen in the air begins to get involved, if you burn the candle, the wax will melt, some will burn and some will evaporate. The wax that melts is easy to capture and weigh, it just runs down the side of the candle, the wax that evaporates is tricky, because it becomes a colourless gas that just wafts around like smoke, the wax that burns is downright impossible, not only is it hard to capture, but because it has burnt, the molecules have broken up and re-bonded with oxygen, the oxygen adds extra weight that becomes hard to subtract out (like trying to get the O out of H2O). so, in the end your candle will weight LESS, but, if you collected all the products the candle emitted over the course of burning it would weigh MORE, because oxygen has bonded into the mix.

Combustion reactions are fascinating things, i think a candle, while simple to do the experiment contains very big molecules that are hard to explain, burning methane gas or pure hydrogen are very simple and illustrate the changes (or non-change) in mass in such a reaction, ask your teacher to do this for you as it can get loud.

On a theory note: The mass of the reactants (ie. candle wax plus wick plus oxygen) will always be exactly equal to the mass of the products (smoke, carbon dioxide, some other stuff). and they will always work in constant ratios, defined in the study of stoichiometry. in your case you may find the mass changes but that will only be because you are not weighing everything.

Answer 4

As has already been mentioned above, there is a difference between melting the candle and burning it.  I won't give the answer about the masses of the final product in each case because that would ruin your experiment, now wouldn't it?  :-)

Yes, I think a kitchen department might have a scale you can buy.

Below are some sites that might have other science project ideas.