Land Without Color Science Fair

Candle Race

by: Princess Aurora

Candles are a very popular decoration that many people use for various reasons. People use candles for ambience, for electricity and sometimes because they like the way the candle smells. There are many different brands of candles, from local store brand names to larger names such as Yankee Candle Company. It's very rare to go into a person's home and not find a candle even if it's just used as a decoration and has never been used. For that reason, I decided to do a science project based on the burn rate of candles. Since they are such a popular item, I decided it would be educational to learn more about them. Do all candles burn at the same rate? Do some brands candles burn faster than other brands? Do certain colors burn faster than others? Sometimes, I have a candle that will last for hours and then another time, the same size candle will just get melted up in the wax and go out after an hour. There were many different avenues scientifically to go when trying to experiment with candles. I decided to narrow it down to the speed of which a candle burns.So my scientific question is: Do colored candles burn faster than white candles?My hypothesis is: Despite some research that shows that white candles burn faster than colored candles burn at, I hypothesize that there is no significant difference between white and colored candles speed of burning.Variables: Independent variable is the color of the candles.Dependent variable is the rate that it burns.Some experiments and research have shown that white candles burn faster than colored candles. (https://mwvsciencefair.wikispaces.com/do+color+or+white+candles+burn+faster%3F). Many researchers felt that since white candles have no dye in them, they would burn slower than colored candles and hence attempted the experiment with the hypothesis that white burns slower, which in the above experiment proved not to be the case, the red candle burned slower than the white one. Other studies have shown that colored candles burned faster than the white. (http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects/38/274/dd52f1e2f0bc5d690136dc3ce0356a9b.html#anchor597603)However, I don't think color as anything to do with it, I believe other factors are the reason as to why some candles burn faster than others, so I set out to hypothesize that all candles of the same size and same brand burn exactly at the same rate of speed regardless of the color. My materials included:5 small candles (white, red, blue, green and orange)

ceramic plate

playdough

scissors

a lighter

a stopwatch

a notebook and pen

measuring tape

The experiment goes as follows. I first covered the ceramic plate with playdough evenly so that the candles could sit in the playdough safely and not have wax spilled all over or have the candles fall over, it was their base. Then I measured the wick of the candles to make sure they were all the same size. If they were not the same size, I trimmed the wicks until they were all the same size. I then used the measuring tape to mark each candle in the same spot, so I knew where to burn to on each candle. Then I placed each candle into the playdough base and lit each candle one at a time. I waited until each candle burned down to the mark in question and timed it with the stop watch. When the candle burned to the mark in question, I stopped the stopwatch, blew the candle out and moved onto the next candle. The order of candles I burned was white, then orange, then red, then green and finally blue.

The results were very surprising. The white candle burned for 52 minutes, the orange candle for 49 minutes, the red candle for 39, the green candle for 32 and the blue candle for 37 minutes. I gave myself a margin of five minutes above or below the baseline of the white candle for matching results. However, clearly, the candles all burned at different times and the range is a full 20 minutes from the longest candle to the shortest candle. (see graph)

I didn't observe any differences in the burning of the candles, I attempted to keep conditions as close as possible for each burning candle, for example there was no fan running or any other type of wind to change the flame of the candle at all. The one difference I did notice is that although the candles were all the same brand name and I cut the wicks to matching lengths, the wicks were not in the same place for each candle. For example, with the white candle, the wick was in the middle of the candle, whereas with the colored candles it was more off center. Whether or not this is the cause of the different burning times, I do not know but it is an observation to be considered for future experiments.In conclusion, I did not prove my hypothesis that all candles of the same color burn at the same rate of time. Even with the window of five minutes, the time difference between the white candle and the green candle is too significant to prove my hypothesis. A future experiment using the wicks as the the basis of the experiment would most likely prove fruitful in determining the timing of which type of candle burns the fastest.

Bibliography:

http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects/38/274/dd52f1e2f0bc5d690136dc3ce0356a9b.html#anchor597603

http://candles.lovetoknow.com/Do_White_Candles_Burn_Faster_than_Colored_Candles

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_final_report.shtml