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I think the main confusion comes from the fact that solid wax is not flammable, you have to melt and vaporize it before it will burn. Those extra steps between the solid wax and the burning flame mean if you aren't actively thinking about it it's hard to just intuitively see the connection.
also the fact that there will usually will be quite the solid and liquid wax residue left upon buring a candle fully, the question comes up only when you realized it's not as much wax as it was pre-burning
@@thedoctor2102 The property in question here is what's called a fuel's Flash Point, the temperature at which it is able to combust. This isn't always above the fuel's boiling point, though. For fuels with a low flash point, the initial flame is very slow and inefficient because it only has the surface of the fuel to interact with the air, but the heat that flame produces can be enough to start vaporizing fuel. This produces a more efficient, faster-burning and hotter flame that then vaporizes more fuel. What's also neat is that you don't even need to reach a fuel's flash point to burn it; between the minimum temperature for a reaction to occur and the flash point itself, the fuel will burn slowly and inefficiently enough that it either can't vaporize enough fuel to get things going properly, or it can't circulate enough fresh oxygen through to continue the reaction. The result is a flameless charring effect, often seen with incense burners
I know that, obviously. Fuel does not necessarily need to be heated to be vaporised ( or atomised just like what a carburettor does, maximising the available surface area of the fuel to aid combustion. :
I still don't understand why this would be a difficult concept for people to understand. Liquid gasoline isn't flammable under normal atmospheric conditions. It vaporizes fairly easily though, so it's difficult to put a match out in a container of gasoline, but if you can get the match flame past the vapors on top of a pool of gasoline without igniting the vapors, the flame would go out in the pool. It's actually easy to extinguish a match flame in a pool of diesel.
@@imberrysandy It started with a simple question about where does the wax go when you burn a candle. He made a TikTok video to explain it. And people kept asking “but where does the wax go??” So he made another video to explain it. And people argued and asked “but where does the wax go???” So…you see where this is going. It has been going on for months. Edited to add: His short answer - “You burned it!” has been his _repeated_ response, to the point that I even commented once that it will need to be etched on his tombstone.
@@imberrysandy I don't think every TikTok gets crossposted, because I haven't seen the candle stuff (at least I don't remember it), but you can get the general idea of his TikTok by looking at the short on his separate TH-cam channel. th-cam.com/users/hankschannel
I'm pleased that this is the top comment. I'm familiar with Hank's candle wax shenanigans on tiktok and hoped I'd see it mentioned. Edit: WAS the top comment. Lol
One time when I was in Boy Scouts the question came up, “where does the wax go?” I told my fellow scouts that it burned. They didn’t get it, they started making fun of me for believing such a ridiculous thing. Their assertion. Was that the wax evaporated (not wrong exactly but not the whole story) the wick was what burned, the wax simply slowed it down. They even went so far as to invent a chant of “wax don’t burn!” Which they kept yelling at me. I have never gotten over the injustice😅
Just forward this video to any you may have kept in touch with. Lol I had the same from elementary school piers regarding bald eagles here in Alberta because none of them had seen one and assumed they only lived in USA kids are dumb
Possible idea for a follow-up video: I make candles using soy wa mainly, sometimes beeswax. I get a LOT of questions about whether it's healthier than paraffin (petroleum-derived) wax, but I also have some people who are convinced beeswax actually cleans the air. I don't think physics works like that, but it'd be a neat research topic!
Whichever wax is used, it's a hydrocarbon at its most basic level, so when it burns, as described in the video, it turns into carbon dioxide and water, plus other "stuff" that is in the wax (including any smellies or just general contaminants the wax comes with), so there's no cleaning, plus soy wax canldes smell like farts to me, so I can't stand them... :P
Between oil lamps and wax candles were what was called "tallow" candles, made from rendered animal fat; in the 18th century, wax candles became a way to distinguish the classes, because those who were wealthy enough to purchase wax candles did so. Tallow candles gave off an acrid smoke, while wax didn't. Jane Austen even makes mention of this is "Emma", saying that those who moved in the "first circle" even used wax candles in the schoolroom (private tutoring).
The same thing happens when you burn fat in your body. You exhale it's byproduct, co2 and water vapor. Absolutely blew my mind when I learned that (probably from SciShow haha).
There was a video from veritasium about it actually and this reminded me of that fact from that video too. I was like you know what else takes in oxygen and gives out CO2 and loses weight as a result? Me! (JK I have determined that it is impossible for me to lose weight, I can only gain :P)
@@HerbaMachina well, less efficient by rate, but far more efficient by amount of energy turned into useful work. In a certain sense sense, it's far more efficient to just set fire to a vat of oil than digest it, haha.
I did know before this video butlonger aho i didn't. I just thought the wick was burning and the candle helped regulate the speed or something. Cause if you try to just burn wax as it is it doesn't work, so the truth is kind of counterintuitive. I like to think that this video was mind-blowing to someone :)
The freaky thing about liquid-fuel rockets is that the combustion happens well below the engine nozzles. The rocket literally stands atop the furious explosion beneath its engines.
Also, back in the days one had to trim the wick every so often to prevent the flame from becoming to big and starting to soot. Nowadays however, the wick is engineered and knitted in such a way, that the very tip of it always points out of the side of the flame and thus shortens itself. The glowy bit at the end of the wick is where the wick is slowly eaten away by the flame, making the frequent trimming obsolete.
trimming wicks is still recommended-the wick curving maintains the wick's height, which also maintains the flame height. people should still trim their wicks because if it's too long it can start to curve excessively, wasting fuel and messing up the pool of wax at the bottom of the flame (causing that stereotypical mess of drippage, specially for narrow candles)
I knew of this trick with re-lighting a blown out candle, but could never figure out how this worked. Makes total sense. I shall try this out by blowing out a candle and trying to condense the wax back on a spoon.
i very much appreciate the in-depth explanation about how we burn the wax and that candles don’t just “disappear” now make a whole video on why humans shouldn’t eat grass
I assume why it seems weird to most of us is down to solid fuels not being as commonly visible outside of fires, We grow up surrounded by liquid fuels that we use for anything from cars to arson but the only real solid fuels we see often are logs in fire places and wax in candles, Candle wax being the stranger of the two common ones since in use it exists in 3 different states of matter at different places on said candle.
Mmmm I think to anyone thats seen a grease fire it's not hard to believe that they can be a solid. Although it is quite the morbid thought to think of that congealed glob of fat in your bacon is the same stuff forming inside of your extremities(especially when it's cold outside).
“Which is what I’ll be doing” comes from a place of pain 💀💀💀 Imagine how frustrated he must’ve ended up getting in order to make a whole ass scishow episode about this lmaooo
cool part is that the trees and other plants actually build themselves out of that air. The carbon from the 'dioxide is used to build those cell walls that we later burn for heat.
When I got the notification for this I just laughed, the amount of times Hank's had this one on tiktok I'm not surprised it made it here. Now how long until he does one about not eating grass?
Call me old-fashioned but I’ve always loved candles and oil lamps. Candles aren’t the only confusing flammable materials I know of. Many normally non-flammable solids and liquids will combust or even explode violently in dry, powdered form. This includes plant grains, including ground corn and wheat, dairy products, including dried milk protein, plant flowers and fruit, including cotton, oranges and olives (dynamite and smokeless powder is made with pure cotton treated with nitric and sulfuric acids), plant sugar (sugar is a main ingredient in some model rocket engines), various metals, including iron, copper, aluminum, magnesium, zinc, cerium, etc.. Some examples: Corn chips are quite flammable and can be used a survival candle. There have been many powerful documented grain silo explosions caused by plant grain dust being ignited by the static electricity produced by the flowing grain. Powdered coffee creamer is often used in the movie SFX industry as a brilliant low explosive that shows up wonderfully on screen. Solid iron and solid aluminum-when powdered and mixed together-is known as ‘thermite’ and once ignited can melt through an engine block at over 2500°C (4500°F). The real mystery is: “Are there enough fire extinguishers in my kitchen?”.
Here’s another confusing fuel: coal Not confusing, you say? Well! Here’s the weird: if it gets wet or damp while being transported, and then is stored with that bit of wet, it has a nasty habit of randomly bursting into… well, not flame, per say… but it gets to smoldering. THAT is how there was an active fire while the doomed RMS Titanic was going down. She had damp coal that decided to just burn. Before it went in the boiler.
@@icarusbinns3156 Yeah, exothermic reactions can throw you a curve ball. I get the same jitters when I’m working with certain wood treatments, like tung oil. I’ve never had a rag spontaneously catch fire, but knowing it’s possible, I soak them in water in a metal can.
@@DanielGBenesScienceShows Also why you should never add a lot of sulfuric acid to water at once. The result is not something you'd expect without knowing about it.
Regarding dust explosions: Here in the Mill City (Minneapolis, Minnesota, US), we have a big monument in Lakewood Cemetery to a flour mill explosion. The Washburn A Mill -- the largest flour mill in the world at the time -- blew up in 1878 when sparks from two dry millstones ignited a bunch of flour dust. The explosion destroyed the mill; stones from its walls landed more than half a mile away. The fire also spread to neighboring mills, which were built side-by-side along a waterpower canal under the street. And the intense heat meant firefighters couldn't get very close to fight it -- especially with 1870s pumps and hoses and firefighting gear. In total, 18 people were killed in the disaster. The mill was rebuilt bigger and better by 1880, and the Washburn company that owned it eventually grew into General Mills. But changes in technology made bigger mills practical in other places without waterpower (like Buffalo NY), and almost all of the Mill District had shut down by 1970. The then-abandoned A Mill itself was nearly destroyed by another fire in 1991, but its ruins were stabilized. The Mill City Museum opened inside it in 2003. The cemetery monument was built in 1885.
When I was a kid, I thought candles worked thanks to the wax slowing down how quickly the wick burned. The wick was the fuel for the fire (I mean, obviously, since that's the part that's on fire), and because the fire had to melt through the wax to get to the fresh part of the wick, this enabled the candle to burn for longer than it otherwise would.
one of my favorite things from middle school is that my science teacher did some kind of experiment where everyone in class had a candle and lit it on fire for some reason that I don't remember. The part I remember is that for weeks afterwards his floor would be extremely slick like it had just been waxed, which in a way it had. I think he did it on purpose just to watch everyone slide around and laugh at the awkward kids.
It's surprising how many people think that the wax isn't the fuel at all. I have found a number of people believe it's actually meant to slow down the rate that the wick burns, because they think the wick itself is extremely flammable. It's actually pretty hard to burn an unwaxed or unoiled wick. Apparently their reason for thinking so is that when you burn a taper candle, it just melts and rolls off the sides. Obviously that only accounts for the part of it that manages to escape unburned, and if you tried to melt it into a new candle you'd see that not nearly as much is left.
I was about to not click on this video because wax turning into CO2 and H2O was pretty obvious to me, but I figured that with the video being ~5 minutes there'd surely be more to the video than just "it goes into the air". Ended up learning about the role of the wick, as well as what the smoke actually is. Glad to have clicked.
Weird that most candles I burnt in the past I knew exactly when the wax went. It went all over the place below the candle like all over the bottle, candle holder, or all over the floor one time. 🤣 Seems like only some candles wax went into the air and others went deep into the carpet fibers. 😂🤣😂🤣
(2:07) How can you say, "the wick is not what's burning. What's burning is the oil that's being drawn up into the wick."? I understand the point you are trying to make but both the wick AND the oil are burning. Otherwise, where does the candle wick go? ;)
Thank you Hank and SciShow team! I just had a lovely morning sharing this knowledge with my 2 and 4 year olds (and wife). They were captivated by the relighting candle trick. Well done video and thanks again!
In a room with dimmed lights and very still air, I observed a candle flame stretching almost a metre high. The soot was glowing orange in a long, thin stream above the elongated flame.
I clicked on this video because I genuinely didn't know. I knew it was because the was was being combusted, but I didn't understand how since the liquid was doesn't catch on fire. The liquid being drawn up by the wick makes perfect sense
If you read through the comments, there are quite a few people who feel disappointed -- even angry -- at you for not having figured this out already. The next question Hank should answer is why those people are so upset.
Never leave a burning candle alone. While safer than an oil lamp, they are not really safe. Lots of bad fires occur from candles. Just ask any fire fighter about candles.
I always had the doubt that even after a candle burnt fully there is still wax left in the holder and if the wax is the fuel we should still be able to reuse that wax to make a new albeit shorter candle.
I thought it was just the wick burning. I never realized the wax was full. I just thought it was the container and there to make the wick burn longer by covering some of it. Like stocking coals to last over night.
I really recommend to anyone, to find a demonstration or text of Michael Faraday's lecture "The Chemical History of a Candle." The language used is both poetic and practical, being the target audience was laymen of the mid 1800s... There's an especially good version by Bill Hammack on TH-cam.
I was just thinking of this the other day, but listening to this it sounds so obvious. I guess that I never thought of wax as a fuel, because it doesn't burn like that normally. I don't know exactly what I thought wax did, maybe just somehow extend how long the wick burned... Whatever, I don't know. It's like, I knew how oil lamps worked, but for some reason none of that info crossed over in my head. I feel very silly and I'm happy that I now know what is really happening.
That smoke trick is how I learned as a teenager to never fry oil on full blast with the lid on. The moment I removed the lid... set fire to the pan and almost the whole kitchen.
It isn't likely taught explicitly in school, and most of what most people learn in school, was memorized for a test, thereafter forgotten, and not internalized well or synthesized into useful knowledge that connects with other useful knowledge. Sadly. I was shocked to find this the general case, because I halfway flunked my way through school due to being determined to internalize what I learned and connect it with existing knowledge, and still understand that which I learned, but found out that that is unusual, and that of the people I know in real life, almost none have any functional or intuitive understanding of any of the math or sciences they studied in school. Makes me wonder what the point of it was, going there for 12 years, if nothing stuck.
we used to have paraffin candles, which didn't disappear - they'd "tear" up and melt into a nasty pile of hot paraffin, which afterwards was difficult to remove from any surface.
It says something about this channel when I'm still compelled to click to watch the video even when I already well know the answer to the question in the title.
I love candles and kerosene lamps. A burning flame is so much more satisfying and cozy than artificial light. In Sweden we call light from candles and lamps "levande ljus" which means "Alive light", and that kind of encapsulates what I like about them, they're almost like a living thing, constantly moving and flickering.
Serious question here ... I'm nearsighted, so when I take my glasses off, things that are far away get blurry. So WHY then, when I'm up close to a mirror, is the reflection of the background still blurry??
You're still looking at something that is far away correct? So your eyes are trying to make sense of the light that has traveled a longer distance than you can focus on.
Hank has actually answered this one too! I think it was in a Dear Hank and John episode, but I don't remember which one so I'll just sum it up. 😅 Mirrors reflect the image of what's in front of them. But they don't do it like a photograph, where everything is flattened into a single plane that is all one level for your eyes to focus on. Looking into a mirror is more like looking through a window - it just happens to be a "window" to what's behind you. The things in the mirror are still just as far away as they would be if you turned around, and the light reaching your eyes is simply reversed back at you by the mirror. If your eyes require external correction to focus on an object 10 feet away normally, they will need that same correction to focus on the same object 10 feet behind you in a mirror. TL;DR - a mirror is like a window, not a photograph
its hard to explain but its to do with how focusing works, along with the fact that mirrios reflect light, and so reflect images as a result of that. The image you see from a mirror is made of rays of light that have bounced off of it that have also bounced off whatever you are seeing the reflection of. because the mirror is flat the rays will all bounce off at the same angle and so will all retain their angles of movement to each other, whereas in a curved mirror, or lens (like in your eye, focusing light in to a single point, or if you need glasses, through the glasses and eye to focus the light in to that same single point), the angle of each ray of light is changed, becoming narrower (making the image appear smaller/making the focal point closer) or wider (making the image appear larger/focal point longer). one of those light tracking images they always use with lenses might help: mcqpoint.com/questions/2021/06/26/the-size-o1624699567.jpg
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I think the main confusion comes from the fact that solid wax is not flammable, you have to melt and vaporize it before it will burn. Those extra steps between the solid wax and the burning flame mean if you aren't actively thinking about it it's hard to just intuitively see the connection.
also the fact that there will usually will be quite the solid and liquid wax residue left upon buring a candle fully, the question comes up only when you realized it's not as much wax as it was pre-burning
I would imagine that as a rule most if not nearly all fuels (solid or liquid) need to vaporise to be able to combust.
@@thedoctor2102 The property in question here is what's called a fuel's Flash Point, the temperature at which it is able to combust. This isn't always above the fuel's boiling point, though. For fuels with a low flash point, the initial flame is very slow and inefficient because it only has the surface of the fuel to interact with the air, but the heat that flame produces can be enough to start vaporizing fuel. This produces a more efficient, faster-burning and hotter flame that then vaporizes more fuel. What's also neat is that you don't even need to reach a fuel's flash point to burn it; between the minimum temperature for a reaction to occur and the flash point itself, the fuel will burn slowly and inefficiently enough that it either can't vaporize enough fuel to get things going properly, or it can't circulate enough fresh oxygen through to continue the reaction. The result is a flameless charring effect, often seen with incense burners
I know that, obviously. Fuel does not necessarily need to be heated to be vaporised ( or atomised just like what a carburettor does, maximising the available surface area of the fuel to aid combustion. :
I still don't understand why this would be a difficult concept for people to understand. Liquid gasoline isn't flammable under normal atmospheric conditions. It vaporizes fairly easily though, so it's difficult to put a match out in a container of gasoline, but if you can get the match flame past the vapors on top of a pool of gasoline without igniting the vapors, the flame would go out in the pool. It's actually easy to extinguish a match flame in a pool of diesel.
No one holds a candle to Hank when it comes to answering this particular sticky wicket. Thanks for waxing eloquent!
You win!
I love you, but stop.
Shut up and take my Like and these 1000 internets ...
Nice. Don't ever stop
I don't get it
Hank got so tired of the TikTok comments he made a scishow video
I dont have tiktok. What kind of comments were mentioned?
@@imberrysandy It started with a simple question about where does the wax go when you burn a candle. He made a TikTok video to explain it. And people kept asking “but where does the wax go??” So he made another video to explain it. And people argued and asked “but where does the wax go???” So…you see where this is going. It has been going on for months.
Edited to add: His short answer - “You burned it!” has been his _repeated_ response, to the point that I even commented once that it will need to be etched on his tombstone.
@@imberrysandy I don't think every TikTok gets crossposted, because I haven't seen the candle stuff (at least I don't remember it), but you can get the general idea of his TikTok by looking at the short on his separate TH-cam channel.
th-cam.com/users/hankschannel
I have been waiting for this episode ever since he posted that on Instagram 🤣
I'm pleased that this is the top comment. I'm familiar with Hank's candle wax shenanigans on tiktok and hoped I'd see it mentioned.
Edit: WAS the top comment. Lol
Knowing of the TikToks you've had to REPEATEDLY make for this issue, I love that you made this episode :-)
I laughed when I saw the video title. I’m surprised he didn’t do this sooner.
@@oneminuteofmyday same! I thought: this?? Again??
I just want him to make a tictok on this featuring "ya burned" from Seth Myers
SAME. How many times does he have to explain this? 🤣
"it can be pretty confusing" sci show should let hank say what he really feels on this one
One time when I was in Boy Scouts the question came up, “where does the wax go?” I told my fellow scouts that it burned.
They didn’t get it, they started making fun of me for believing such a ridiculous thing. Their assertion. Was that the wax evaporated (not wrong exactly but not the whole story) the wick was what burned, the wax simply slowed it down.
They even went so far as to invent a chant of “wax don’t burn!” Which they kept yelling at me.
I have never gotten over the injustice😅
I've had a similar thing happen to me like why would you not believe me anyway let us live our life in peace knowing we were the right ones lol
Just forward this video to any you may have kept in touch with. Lol I had the same from elementary school piers regarding bald eagles here in Alberta because none of them had seen one and assumed they only lived in USA kids are dumb
You should have melted several pounds of wax and covered their tents in it and lit it then asked them how well it burned.
@@filonin2 Or simply dripped some hot wax from a candle onto their skin, while asking them whether it burned!?!
@@Teammizera lol like eagles care about national borders 🤣
Possible idea for a follow-up video: I make candles using soy wa mainly, sometimes beeswax. I get a LOT of questions about whether it's healthier than paraffin (petroleum-derived) wax, but I also have some people who are convinced beeswax actually cleans the air. I don't think physics works like that, but it'd be a neat research topic!
I dunno about healthier, but I do prefer soy wax melts only because the wax is a lot softer than paraffin and that makes it a lot easier to clean up.
... no matter what, in the end, it will be carbon dioxide + H20
It won't clean the air, it might be cleaner
Whichever wax is used, it's a hydrocarbon at its most basic level, so when it burns, as described in the video, it turns into carbon dioxide and water, plus other "stuff" that is in the wax (including any smellies or just general contaminants the wax comes with), so there's no cleaning, plus soy wax canldes smell like farts to me, so I can't stand them... :P
What do vegans prefer?
@@nedludd7622 probably soy since beeswax is a product of bees
while I knew the wax was the fuel, I did not know the smoke was the wax vapor. So cool, I still learned something new.
It's the same with all other fuels containing multiple carbon atoms, the soot is the result of some of it not burning completely
Between oil lamps and wax candles were what was called "tallow" candles, made from rendered animal fat; in the 18th century, wax candles became a way to distinguish the classes, because those who were wealthy enough to purchase wax candles did so. Tallow candles gave off an acrid smoke, while wax didn't. Jane Austen even makes mention of this is "Emma", saying that those who moved in the "first circle" even used wax candles in the schoolroom (private tutoring).
The same thing happens when you burn fat in your body. You exhale it's byproduct, co2 and water vapor. Absolutely blew my mind when I learned that (probably from SciShow haha).
Yeah the idea that "burning calories" is called that because it's literally the same chemical process as burning something with fire blew my mind.
its
it gets out in your poop ...
There was a video from veritasium about it actually and this reminded me of that fact from that video too. I was like you know what else takes in oxygen and gives out CO2 and loses weight as a result? Me! (JK I have determined that it is impossible for me to lose weight, I can only gain :P)
@@HerbaMachina well, less efficient by rate, but far more efficient by amount of energy turned into useful work.
In a certain sense sense, it's far more efficient to just set fire to a vat of oil than digest it, haha.
Pretty sure we all knew where the wax goes, we just like to listen to Hank explaining stuff. ☺️
Yep
Yeah, this was one of those rare, "well duh!" videos.
That, and to confirm that we're smart. 🤣
I did know before this video butlonger aho i didn't. I just thought the wick was burning and the candle helped regulate the speed or something. Cause if you try to just burn wax as it is it doesn't work, so the truth is kind of counterintuitive. I like to think that this video was mind-blowing to someone :)
The freaky thing about liquid-fuel rockets is that the combustion happens well below the engine nozzles. The rocket literally stands atop the furious explosion beneath its engines.
Also, back in the days one had to trim the wick every so often to prevent the flame from becoming to big and starting to soot.
Nowadays however, the wick is engineered and knitted in such a way, that the very tip of it always points out of the side of the flame and thus shortens itself.
The glowy bit at the end of the wick is where the wick is slowly eaten away by the flame, making the frequent trimming obsolete.
trimming wicks is still recommended-the wick curving maintains the wick's height, which also maintains the flame height. people should still trim their wicks because if it's too long it can start to curve excessively, wasting fuel and messing up the pool of wax at the bottom of the flame (causing that stereotypical mess of drippage, specially for narrow candles)
So, I'm assuming next up is a "Don't eat grass!" video. 😄 Thanks Hank!
" Why not? Goats do all the time. "
I knew of this trick with re-lighting a blown out candle, but could never figure out how this worked. Makes total sense. I shall try this out by blowing out a candle and trying to condense the wax back on a spoon.
Try cooling the spoon first (in a freezer, etc). Should accelerate the process!
i very much appreciate the in-depth explanation about how we burn the wax and that candles don’t just “disappear”
now make a whole video on why humans shouldn’t eat grass
I'm so proud of you, Hank, for keeping your cool during this episode. Beautifully done.
I assume why it seems weird to most of us is down to solid fuels not being as commonly visible outside of fires,
We grow up surrounded by liquid fuels that we use for anything from cars to arson but the only real solid fuels we see often are logs in fire places and wax in candles,
Candle wax being the stranger of the two common ones since in use it exists in 3 different states of matter at different places on said candle.
Mmmm I think to anyone thats seen a grease fire it's not hard to believe that they can be a solid. Although it is quite the morbid thought to think of that congealed glob of fat in your bacon is the same stuff forming inside of your extremities(especially when it's cold outside).
Hahahah "from cars to arson", ah yes, the things we all do normally. It's what we're used to!
I eat it, I eat all the wax
😂
Seeing Hank's frustration on TikTok about this topic was absolutely priceless. I'm glad he explained it more clearly here :)
“Which is what I’ll be doing” comes from a place of pain 💀💀💀 Imagine how frustrated he must’ve ended up getting in order to make a whole ass scishow episode about this lmaooo
Linode: Hey Hank, mind if we pay you for some content answering an often asked science question?
Hank: I HAVE JUST THE QUESTION!
cool part is that the trees and other plants actually build themselves out of that air. The carbon from the 'dioxide is used to build those cell walls that we later burn for heat.
Don't forget the nitrates found in the soils (or maybe air)
@@NicolasMendoula I'd point out the water first, I'm sure the plant contains more of that
Burn for heat, wear, sit on...
When I got the notification for this I just laughed, the amount of times Hank's had this one on tiktok I'm not surprised it made it here. Now how long until he does one about not eating grass?
i shouldnt eat grass?
I've been on TikTok... this is Hank's legacy 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Poor Hank. Maybe they'll stop asking, now. XD
Doubt it
It's under the sauce!
Same Thought. At least he can just send them here now.
bold of you to assume any of them would watch a video longer than 20 seconds
@@3possumsinatrenchcoat Ayy Ooh!
Shots fired. I love it.
Call me old-fashioned but I’ve always loved candles and oil lamps. Candles aren’t the only confusing flammable materials I know of. Many normally non-flammable solids and liquids will combust or even explode violently in dry, powdered form. This includes plant grains, including ground corn and wheat, dairy products, including dried milk protein, plant flowers and fruit, including cotton, oranges and olives (dynamite and smokeless powder is made with pure cotton treated with nitric and sulfuric acids), plant sugar (sugar is a main ingredient in some model rocket engines), various metals, including iron, copper, aluminum, magnesium, zinc, cerium, etc..
Some examples: Corn chips are quite flammable and can be used a survival candle. There have been many powerful documented grain silo explosions caused by plant grain dust being ignited by the static electricity produced by the flowing grain. Powdered coffee creamer is often used in the movie SFX industry as a brilliant low explosive that shows up wonderfully on screen. Solid iron and solid aluminum-when powdered and mixed together-is known as ‘thermite’ and once ignited can melt through an engine block at over 2500°C (4500°F). The real mystery is: “Are there enough fire extinguishers in my kitchen?”.
Here’s another confusing fuel: coal
Not confusing, you say? Well! Here’s the weird: if it gets wet or damp while being transported, and then is stored with that bit of wet, it has a nasty habit of randomly bursting into… well, not flame, per say… but it gets to smoldering.
THAT is how there was an active fire while the doomed RMS Titanic was going down. She had damp coal that decided to just burn. Before it went in the boiler.
@@icarusbinns3156 Yeah, exothermic reactions can throw you a curve ball. I get the same jitters when I’m working with certain wood treatments, like tung oil. I’ve never had a rag spontaneously catch fire, but knowing it’s possible, I soak them in water in a metal can.
@@DanielGBenesScienceShows Also why you should never add a lot of sulfuric acid to water at once. The result is not something you'd expect without knowing about it.
@@davidmcgill1000 Absolutely!
Regarding dust explosions: Here in the Mill City (Minneapolis, Minnesota, US), we have a big monument in Lakewood Cemetery to a flour mill explosion. The Washburn A Mill -- the largest flour mill in the world at the time -- blew up in 1878 when sparks from two dry millstones ignited a bunch of flour dust. The explosion destroyed the mill; stones from its walls landed more than half a mile away. The fire also spread to neighboring mills, which were built side-by-side along a waterpower canal under the street. And the intense heat meant firefighters couldn't get very close to fight it -- especially with 1870s pumps and hoses and firefighting gear. In total, 18 people were killed in the disaster.
The mill was rebuilt bigger and better by 1880, and the Washburn company that owned it eventually grew into General Mills. But changes in technology made bigger mills practical in other places without waterpower (like Buffalo NY), and almost all of the Mill District had shut down by 1970. The then-abandoned A Mill itself was nearly destroyed by another fire in 1991, but its ruins were stabilized. The Mill City Museum opened inside it in 2003.
The cemetery monument was built in 1885.
When I was a kid, I thought candles worked thanks to the wax slowing down how quickly the wick burned. The wick was the fuel for the fire (I mean, obviously, since that's the part that's on fire), and because the fire had to melt through the wax to get to the fresh part of the wick, this enabled the candle to burn for longer than it otherwise would.
Not as funny as when you did it on Tik-Tok. "You burned it Brittany, you burned it!!!" Lol. That one still cracks me up.
Same. lol
Hey, leave Brittany alone.
Finally , one earths greatest questions, answered
I love Hank's evident delight when doing the extremely strained sponsor segue.
one of my favorite things from middle school is that my science teacher did some kind of experiment where everyone in class had a candle and lit it on fire for some reason that I don't remember. The part I remember is that for weeks afterwards his floor would be extremely slick like it had just been waxed, which in a way it had. I think he did it on purpose just to watch everyone slide around and laugh at the awkward kids.
lmfaoooo i hear the annoyance in Hank's voice
It's surprising how many people think that the wax isn't the fuel at all. I have found a number of people believe it's actually meant to slow down the rate that the wick burns, because they think the wick itself is extremely flammable. It's actually pretty hard to burn an unwaxed or unoiled wick.
Apparently their reason for thinking so is that when you burn a taper candle, it just melts and rolls off the sides. Obviously that only accounts for the part of it that manages to escape unburned, and if you tried to melt it into a new candle you'd see that not nearly as much is left.
We really need to get the lead levels down in our water. It is a national crisis, clearly.
I love it when this channel’s hosts wax scientific.
I always thought the wax was just a convenient filler for the wick to burn controllably, never knew it was the actual fuel
I actually did know, the quick pulls the melted wax. But hank always does such a great job explaining our particular questions
I have asked this question so many times. I know it burns, but into what. I just for some reason never looked it up when I thought of it. Thanks Hank!
I was about to not click on this video because wax turning into CO2 and H2O was pretty obvious to me, but I figured that with the video being ~5 minutes there'd surely be more to the video than just "it goes into the air". Ended up learning about the role of the wick, as well as what the smoke actually is. Glad to have clicked.
This was an exceptionally well presented episode even by the standards of this channel. WELL DONE!
Hank should do a video on just the word why and how you can say why to everything
Why
What comes before *X* ?
@@massimookissed1023 W?
@@General12th yes W, not why. ;)
@@massimookissed1023 Se
Weird that most candles I burnt in the past I knew exactly when the wax went. It went all over the place below the candle like all over the bottle, candle holder, or all over the floor one time. 🤣
Seems like only some candles wax went into the air and others went deep into the carpet fibers. 😂🤣😂🤣
(2:07) How can you say, "the wick is not what's burning. What's burning is the oil that's being drawn up into the wick."? I understand the point you are trying to make but both the wick AND the oil are burning. Otherwise, where does the candle wick go? ;)
Such an obvious but neat explanation. I love candles and lamps, fire good.
That linode cloud transition was smooth as a beeswax candle 🕯🤌🏻
I'm living in a age where people are confused about candle wax, that indeed is really novel to think about.
Hank has said this so many times on tiktok and I love he’s just devoted an entire episode to it.
Thank you Hank and SciShow team! I just had a lovely morning sharing this knowledge with my 2 and 4 year olds (and wife). They were captivated by the relighting candle trick. Well done video and thanks again!
I am very happy hank is the voice for this one
F what anyone has to say. This is your channel and you can review what you want. We love your commentary.
That's one smooth transition to the sponsor xD
In a room with dimmed lights and very still air, I observed a candle flame stretching almost a metre high. The soot was glowing orange in a long, thin stream above the elongated flame.
too much co2. ventilate and vacate
@@hardrays I was duct taped to a wall
the fact that hank had to have them make this freakin video 🤣🤣
I love how TT forces Hank to do a full episode on this. 😂
as a candle maker, thank you for teaching me the science of my trade 😅🙏
I clicked on this video because I genuinely didn't know. I knew it was because the was was being combusted, but I didn't understand how since the liquid was doesn't catch on fire.
The liquid being drawn up by the wick makes perfect sense
If you read through the comments, there are quite a few people who feel disappointed -- even angry -- at you for not having figured this out already.
The next question Hank should answer is why those people are so upset.
I love the fact that I've seen the answer on TikTok like 40 times and Hank being frustrated, and then scishow makes the video
LOL - Hank's good humor lights up my life!
I love that hank got so tired of getting asked to explain again on tiktok that he made it into a scishow video
Love that you made a video on this, saw your struggle to explain it on tiktok
Never leave a burning candle alone. While safer than an oil lamp, they are not really safe. Lots of bad fires occur from candles. Just ask any fire fighter about candles.
You never know what those bastards are planning.
I spent 4 years working at a candle factory, then did my own home business making candles for 15 years. This is accurate to a flame.
I saw your tik-tok some weeks ago and it's hilarious that you decided to make a whole video because of it.
I always had the doubt that even after a candle burnt fully there is still wax left in the holder and if the wax is the fuel we should still be able to reuse that wax to make a new albeit shorter candle.
you can absolutely do this. there are some candle holders that will gather the wax that drips down and form it into a new candle for you to use
I love how you were asked this so much on TikTok you just made a SC show of it
It burns Brittany, it BURNS 😂
Oh what a smooth segue!! Nicely done Hank!
“I know that’s what I’ll be doing” he said, not angry at all
I thought it was just the wick burning. I never realized the wax was full. I just thought it was the container and there to make the wick burn longer by covering some of it. Like stocking coals to last over night.
Following Faraday's footsteps? I love his "Natural history of a candle".
Hank finally snapped
my favorite question is where the a plant get the material that makes the plant...
the air
I like the tune about the baker, mechanic, and candlestick maker. greyishgreblum, "Pottery tap and die"💜
Because there is some modern philosophy of "pie in the sky". And, you have to make it happen all by yourself with everyone fighting against you.
I really recommend to anyone, to find a demonstration or text of Michael Faraday's lecture "The Chemical History of a Candle." The language used is both poetic and practical, being the target audience was laymen of the mid 1800s...
There's an especially good version by Bill Hammack on TH-cam.
Been there done that
Not so much
The segue to advert was perfect.
I was just thinking of this the other day, but listening to this it sounds so obvious. I guess that I never thought of wax as a fuel, because it doesn't burn like that normally. I don't know exactly what I thought wax did, maybe just somehow extend how long the wick burned... Whatever, I don't know. It's like, I knew how oil lamps worked, but for some reason none of that info crossed over in my head. I feel very silly and I'm happy that I now know what is really happening.
4:10 I was so sure you were gonna say "It vanishes into thin air"
That smoke trick is how I learned as a teenager to never fry oil on full blast with the lid on. The moment I removed the lid... set fire to the pan and almost the whole kitchen.
I once made a oil lamp out of cotton, olive oil, and a small glass dish.
Ok so what I'm hearing is that Shrek making candles from his ears is science accurate. Cool
I love that you got so tired of answering this on tiktok and just gave up and made a whole episode about it
I think Hank should be invited to more parties from now on!
Thank goodness Hank is the one hosting this episode. I've seen so many of Hank's TikToks talking about this.
YOU BURNED IT BRITNEY!
It goes on to your walls and furniture. If your a consistent candle burner, wipe your wall with a rag, and you will see a lot of soot on the rag.
Gotta say, this was one of the things, I never really wondered about.
It is genuinely terrifying that this video needs to exist on a channel meant for adults.
It isn't likely taught explicitly in school, and most of what most people learn in school, was memorized for a test, thereafter forgotten, and not internalized well or synthesized into useful knowledge that connects with other useful knowledge. Sadly. I was shocked to find this the general case, because I halfway flunked my way through school due to being determined to internalize what I learned and connect it with existing knowledge, and still understand that which I learned, but found out that that is unusual, and that of the people I know in real life, almost none have any functional or intuitive understanding of any of the math or sciences they studied in school. Makes me wonder what the point of it was, going there for 12 years, if nothing stuck.
poor Hank, still answering this one (1) question
Even now. 😂
Hank got so tired of this question he turned it into a SciShow video
Technology Connections explores old lamp design much more in depth
we used to have paraffin candles, which didn't disappear - they'd "tear" up and melt into a nasty pile of hot paraffin, which afterwards was difficult to remove from any surface.
Lmao! TikTok harassing Hank resulted in a SciShow episode! I love it 😂💜👍
Loved the video, but also, damn! What a sick transition to the sponsor!
It says something about this channel when I'm still compelled to click to watch the video even when I already well know the answer to the question in the title.
I'm more impressed by the ad segue than i am by Hank explaining something i thought was obvious but obviously not.
I'm very disappointed this video needed to be made.
Great question, I've been wondering.
I love candles and kerosene lamps. A burning flame is so much more satisfying and cozy than artificial light. In Sweden we call light from candles and lamps "levande ljus" which means "Alive light", and that kind of encapsulates what I like about them, they're almost like a living thing, constantly moving and flickering.
If it melts, we should have a infinite candle glitch
it melts, evaporates and burns.
Serious question here ...
I'm nearsighted, so when I take my glasses off, things that are far away get blurry. So WHY then, when I'm up close to a mirror, is the reflection of the background still blurry??
You're still looking at something that is far away correct? So your eyes are trying to make sense of the light that has traveled a longer distance than you can focus on.
Hank has actually answered this one too! I think it was in a Dear Hank and John episode, but I don't remember which one so I'll just sum it up. 😅 Mirrors reflect the image of what's in front of them. But they don't do it like a photograph, where everything is flattened into a single plane that is all one level for your eyes to focus on. Looking into a mirror is more like looking through a window - it just happens to be a "window" to what's behind you. The things in the mirror are still just as far away as they would be if you turned around, and the light reaching your eyes is simply reversed back at you by the mirror. If your eyes require external correction to focus on an object 10 feet away normally, they will need that same correction to focus on the same object 10 feet behind you in a mirror.
TL;DR - a mirror is like a window, not a photograph
A mirror isn't a screen.
@@coolkumquats thank you for your concise but complete and comprehensible answer.
its hard to explain but its to do with how focusing works, along with the fact that mirrios reflect light, and so reflect images as a result of that. The image you see from a mirror is made of rays of light that have bounced off of it that have also bounced off whatever you are seeing the reflection of.
because the mirror is flat the rays will all bounce off at the same angle and so will all retain their angles of movement to each other, whereas in a curved mirror, or lens (like in your eye, focusing light in to a single point, or if you need glasses, through the glasses and eye to focus the light in to that same single point), the angle of each ray of light is changed, becoming narrower (making the image appear smaller/making the focal point closer) or wider (making the image appear larger/focal point longer).
one of those light tracking images they always use with lenses might help: mcqpoint.com/questions/2021/06/26/the-size-o1624699567.jpg
I love… that he got sick enough of this question on TikTok that he was like “that’s it… making a whole video”
4:07 insert Yoda explaining the force