When I started this blog 5 years ago, I had no idea that burning a candle at both ends would be one of our favorite. experiments. ever! This was also an fun one to try around Halloween because it really does look like a a couple of ghosts going back and forth on a seesaw. 👻 👻 (But of course we know it’s not ghosts… it’s science! 😉)
What you need: A tapered candle, a match, two straight pins, two glasses, aluminum foil, and adult supervision
How you do it:
- Cut about 1-inch off the bottom end of a tapered candle to expose the wick
- Locate the center of the candle and insert two pins to form a fulcrum like a seesaw
- Place two glasses on top of a piece of aluminum foil to catch wax drippings
- Balance the candle from the pins off two glasses
- Light one end of the candle until it starts dripping
- Then light the second end
- Wait for the bottom flame to melt a bit of the wax (you’ll thank me that you put aluminum foil down ;-))
- Observe the ghostly seesaw action of the candle
What’s the science? This is another example of Newton’s third law of motion that states for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. When wax melts on one end of the candle, mass is lost causing that end of the candle to become lighter and move upward. The upward motion causes the other end of the candle to drop it’s wax, lose mass, and move upward. This goes back and forth like a seesaw until both ends of the candle are losing wax at the same time and the candle balances. As it balances watch as it makes some pretty cool wax art before the two flames meet in the middle.
This would we a fun one to try out for a Halloween party or include in a Halloween science experiment for your class. We hope you have a spooooky Halloween filled with science! (que the spooky Vincent Price laugh ;-))
Leave a Reply