What's In A Candle Flame?

2m read

·Nov 10, 2024

What is a candle flame really made of? I am at the Palace of Discovery in Paris to do an experiment that beautifully demonstrates the answers.

Ok, so we're turning on an electric field here and we see that the flame is spreading out. That's very cute; it's like a butterfly. And you can see that the flame has two separate pieces to it now. One is going towards the negative plate. Those would be the positive ions, and the negative ions will be going towards a positively charged plate. So we see the flame kinda flattening out.

But if that didn't convince you that flame contains ions, then check part two of our experiment where we compare the conductivity of a flame to the conductivity of air, which is normally a pretty good insulator. It requires about 10,000 volts to break down a centimeter of air. So right now, this plate is about 20,000 V. You see that the spark is only little, but if I put it around the flame, we will see if we can get a bigger spark happen.

Look at that, yeaaa! Because the flame has those ions in it, that means that we can break down a greater distance of air. This greater conductivity. It's awesome! You love doing this, right?

A strong enough electric field can actually extinguish the flame, but watch carefully what happens when the flame goes out. Just like in the flame, the opposite charges in the smoke are pulled in opposite directions. Now, while some may argue that a flame is not truly a plasma because it's not hot enough and it doesn't have a high enough density of ions, one thing is for sure: it does contain ions which have important electrical properties, which can be demonstrated if you have a strong enough electric field.

You Won't Get Rich Renting Out Your Time

Andrew Kortina of Venmo and Fin on Technological Determinism and Work's Relationship to Dignity

View All

Becoming Cousteau | Official Trailer | National Geographic Documentary Films

Well, I’d like to ask you, what’s it like down there? It’s fantastic! Imagine having no weight. Imagine that this would be underwater; you would move like this, swimming in space above all your little fans. It’s beautiful. When my friends and I started, …

2015 AP Chemistry free response 1a

Metal air cells are a relatively new type of portable energy source consisting of a metal anode, an alkaline electrolyte paste that contains water, and a porous cathode membrane that lets in oxygen from the air. A schematic of the cell is shown above, and…

How to Pee in Space | StarTalk

So we have to ask Mike, “Yes, have you ever peed in your pants in space?” “Yes, we didn’t call it the UCD; we called it the MAG.” “The MAG? The Maximum Absorbency Garment? It was a diaper?” “Diaper! Yes, we wore a diaper on launch and entry, and while …

Proof of p-series convergence criteria | Series | AP Calculus BC | Khan Academy

You might recognize what we have here in yellow as the general form of a p series. What we’re going to do in this video is think about under which conditions, under what p, will this p series converge. By definition, for it to be a p series, p is going to…

Conditions for MVT: graph | Existence theorems | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy

So we’re asked does the mean value theorem apply to h over the interval, and they actually give us four different intervals here. So we should separately consider them. This is the graph of y is equal to h of x. So pause this video and see does the mean …

Reporting measurements | Working with units | Algebra 1 | Khan Academy

In this video, we’re going to talk a little bit about measurement and the idea that you really can’t measure exactly the dimensions of something. And I know what you’re thinking: you’re like, well, no, of course, we can measure the dimensions of something…

What's In A Candle Flame?

More Articles