Try This at Home: Candle in a Jar
Illustrated Concepts
The three ingredients required for fire are fuel, oxygen, and heat.
What You Need
- 1 small candle
- 1 glass jar and lid, big enough for the candle to fit in
- long matches or lighter
What To Do
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Make sure you have an adult with you to supervise this experiment.
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Place the candle upright in the bottom of the jar. Light it.
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Screw the lid onto the jar as tightly as you can.
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Observe what happens inside the jar. Does anything appear on the glass? What happens to the candle?
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Clean up. Use caution when handling jar and lid as they may be hot.
What's Happening
As the candle burns, a combustion reaction occurs. One of the products of combustion is water. You may have noticed water condensing on the inside of the jar. Once the flame has consumed all of the oxygen in the jar, it extinguishes.
Fun Fact
The Space Shuttle is propelled into space by combustion reactions that use up 3 million pounds of fuel in just 8 minutes!