Chemistry Lesson

When I was just finishing diner last night I started looking closely at the flame of the candle burning on the dining table. I was intrigued with the beautiful blue lower edge of the flame and how the colors changed within the different areas of the flame, so I decided to photograph it. I realized that the process taking place was interesting, because the parafin wax making up the candle went from a solid state, to a liquid, to a gas, and the stored energy went from something cool, to something emitting light and heat. An amazing process. So then I went to Wikipedia.org to see what was actually going on, and here is the description of what happens in a candle:

"Prior to the candle being ignited, the wick is impregnated with the fuel in its solid form. The heat of the match or other flame being used to light the candle first melts and then vaporizes a small amount of the fuel. Once vaporized, the fuel combines with oxygen in the atmosphere to form a flame. This flame then provides sufficient heat to keep the candle burning via a self-sustaining chain of events: the heat of the flame melts the top of the mass of solid fuel, the liquified fuel then moves upward through the wick via capillary action, and the liquified fuel is then vaporized to burn within the candle's flame."

:The burning of the fuel takes place in several distinct regions (as evidenced by the various colors that can be seen within the candle's flame). Within the bluer regions, hydrogen is being separated from the fuel and burned to form water vapor. The brighter, hotter, yellower part of the flame is the remaining carbon being oxidized to form carbon dioxide." --Wikipedia.org

Isn't that cool! But after all the chemistry lessons, the most significant part, for me, is the sublime beauty of the flame itself when I studied it! The camera cannot capture the full brightness range of the flame, so the orange color is missing in this photograph, but it is there to be seen with the naked eye.