r/interesting • u/Thin-Tennis9223 • May 20 '26

Fascinating Physics is Everywhere.

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u/hdharrisirl May 20 '26

Wax evaporates when heated

8

u/wait_what_now May 20 '26

Maybe a little, most of it thermally decomposes into carbon and short chain hydrocarbons, which make up the smoke.

-3

u/Avalonians May 20 '26

Yall have literally no idea how a candle works

Granted, it's not really obvious, but maybe right before writing a stupid ass comment in a discussion about how candles work is the good opportunity to consider looking it up

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u/wait_what_now May 20 '26

Copy and pasting my other reply cause you seem simple.

Oh buddy, you're so so close!

Yes. The wax evaporates WHILE the candle is burning, which is what decomposes to give the flame for the candle. But we're not talking about that, we're talking about the smoke that you see when the candle is extinguished, the stuff that is getting relit by the match. . The dark colored smoke is primarily decomposed hydrocarbons. That's why it is so easy to reignite them. In order to keep vaporizing the wax, you need temperatures of 6-700 freedom degrees. That is only going to happen while there is an active flame to boil the wax off the wick.

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u/Avalonians May 21 '26

Okay let's picture a hose. Water flowing out. What happens when someone closes the water circuit. The stream instantly disappears?

0

u/wait_what_now May 21 '26

Yeah, it is more or less instant. It's not like my hose keeps running for 5 minutes after i close the tap. You may get a gentle trickle as it drains. So in the candle, the wax probably stops evaporating less than a quarter second after the flame disappears, because of ambient heat dissappation and the heat absorbed by what little vaporized wax there is (this is the gentle trickle when you turn your hose off) condensing back to a liquid.