Candle Experiment

Experiment carried out by: Emily Kealy, Amethyst Albro and Jessica Gibson

Drawing Out the Idea

Materials needed

2 glasses that are the exact same

1 candle

1 needle

1 lighter

1 knife

Forming a Question

We wanted to know why a candle would have a see-saw effect when lit on both ends.

Carry out the Study

On 2/15/10 we figured out what type of candle works with our experiment.  The candle needs to be balanced on both ends.  We tryed lighting one end of the candle then tapping the other end when lighting it.  The candle did as expected and teetered just like the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u7OwGkWqrk

Then we tryed just burning one side to see if the candle would still teeter.  As soon as we lit the candle it started to move by itself. We started thinking that the candle would eventually flip completely around on its own.  We let it burn for 2 minutes and it never did a complete turn but stood straight up instead.

Next we tryed lighting each side without taping one end to make it go.  Once we lit both sides the teetering began but it wasn't until 1 minute that it began to teeter fastly.  Around 1 minute and 30 seconds it was almost standing up.  We thought it would start to flip but it did not and slowed down around 3 minutes.

To figure out why the candle acted in this matter we decided to measure the mass lost when teetering.  The mass lost was 0.1 gram (approximately 2 drops of wax) to get the candle moving. 

Articulating the Expectation

We found out that the reason for the see-saw effect was because of Newtons third law.  "For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction."  When the wax drops off each side it is lossing a slight amount of mass from each side propeling it to a slight kick back / see - saw move. We can also lokk at it as when wax drops off it creates a slight recoil reaction, similar to when someone jumps off a see-saw.

After Thoughts/ Little Experiment:

We had an idea about the candle becoming a boat after buring for a longer period of time.  We decided to test that and see how long it took to burn into that shape.  After approximately 8 minutes the candle stopped moving.  No boat was made. It just fell apart. This was becasue as each side burned more and more, the candle became shorter and shorter. This caused it to loose so much mass that it did not have enough weight on either end to propel it to move, therefore causing it to completely stop.

How does this compare with the Harwood model?
What is implied by the Baloney Detection Kit?
What about the Harwood model?
How close do these two represent what's happening?



                                                                     Hardwood model

Questions for Word Analysis

First 20 Observations

Two toned blue with a third blue at the tip, striped, threaded material in the middle of the tip, smooth, slender, 5 inches long, circulas, unsented, 1/5 inch thick, hard, has a slight glaze, light weight, can be melted, nonedible, looks like a crayon, two same sized strips one bigger last largest, horizontal stripes, scratched up, middle is white, top and bottom are curved.

Second 20 set of Observations

               (after being burned and cut)
4.5 grams, it's light, it floats, does not stand alone, breakable, rolls, heat makes it flexible, string rins to the bottom, materials crumble when cut off, waterproof, thread turns black when lit, when flame is blown out it smokes, when lit size decreases, nonabsorbant, volume is 5 ML, burns, total amount of dark blue is 1 3/4 inch light blue is 3 inches, drips blue when burned, weighs less when burned.


What do they have in common?
                One the first go round, they have a lot of similarities. They have a lot of physical descriptions of how it looks, many adjectives and prepositions were used.
One the second go round after finding a second set of twenty descriptions, these descriptions were still similar by using the senses and descriptions of color, though these ones seemed to have more action by using verbs, to describe things that were done to it.
Are there any unique observations?
                Some of the unique descriptions that were used to describe it are birthday stripes, fragile, holes, volume, and strawberry.
What senses were used?
                 There were many senses used, in fact all but one were used. It seemed most of us used, touch, sight, smell, even listening. Taste was the only one not used.
What tools were used?
                 Many tools were used for our observations. We used a lighter to light it, a scale to weigh it, water to see if it floated, grid paper to measure it, a beaker to get the volume, and a knife to cut it.