Melissa: 00:10

Hey. I'm Melissa.

Jam: 00:11

I'm Jam.

Melissa: 00:11

And I'm a chemist.

Jam: 00:13

And I'm not.

Melissa: 00:13

And welcome to chemistry for your life.

Jam: 00:15

The podcast that helps you understand and do chemistry In your everyday life, once a month.

Melissa: 00:20

That's right. And this month's episode is actually a little bit different.

Jam: 00:24

Okay.

Melissa: 00:24

This one's not one I would necessarily recommend with younger kids, It's maybe with older kids. Definitely, adult supervision is required.

Jam: 00:32

Okay.

Melissa: 00:32

You may have seen this on a TikTok trend, Or you may have seen it on a YouTube video, or you may have never seen it at all.

Jam: 00:40

Yes. I had never seen it.

Melissa: 00:42

You had never seen it. So tell me what you did, Jam.

Jam: 00:45

Okay. So we got a birthday candle. Mhmm. We improvised and stuck it into a piece of bread so that it would stand up.

Melissa: 00:53

Yeah. You need some kinda hand Candle holder.

Jam: 00:55

Yeah. Something that keep especially because, you know, it's fire. So keep it safe

Melissa: 00:58

Yeah.

Jam: 00:59

So that it's not falling over. And put it in a bowl and lit the candle. Didn't see that coming, did you? And then and then we This is all me following most of the instructions. As always, we blew out the candle, and then as quickly as possible, Tried to light it again, but not lighting the actual candle wick part, but just trying to get the flame of the lighter into the smoke area.

Jam: 01:29

Mhmm. So it really helped to have a kind of long stem lighter

Melissa: 01:33

Yeah.

Jam: 01:34

Which most people I think do have, but, It's it'd be a lot harder with those little tiny, whatever you call them, BIC flick lighters. It'd be much easier with a longer stem lighter.

Melissa: 01:46

Yeah.

Jam: 01:46

And when I moved the flame into the stream of smoke above the wick, The smoke, it seemed, sort of caught on fire, and it traveled down and lit the candle back on fire. It's so fast. It's like

Melissa: 02:03

It's so fast.

Jam: 02:03

We had to do a couple times for me to kind of realize what happened, I guess. Yep. But, Basically, it ends up being that the candle gets lit again without the flame actually touching the candle.

Melissa: 02:17

Yes.

Jam: 02:18

That's what is hard to describe in the right way, and the video will help, I think.

Melissa: 02:23

You'll be able to kind of do a slow mo And and show us how it's actually happening.

Jam: 02:28

Yeah. But it's definitely cool and trippy and kinda like, what?

Melissa: 02:33

Okay. So now, normally, I use this opportunity on our bonus episodes on the chemistry at home episodes. Explain a chemistry topic to you, And then, you know, we talk about it and talk about questions to ask your kids. That's how we normally approach it.

Jam: 02:48

Mhmm.

Melissa: 02:49

Well, This week

Jam: 02:50

Mhmm.

Melissa: 02:51

Instead, I wanted you to have to wait a little bit.

Jam: 02:57

Okay. Interesting.

Melissa: 02:58

So we're going to record an episode this upcoming Thursday. It'll be in your feeds on the chemistry of how candles work.

Jam: 03:07

Nice.

Melissa: 03:07

And once we've unlocked that secret, then this one, I think, will make a lot more sense to you. But here are some questions I want you to ask yourself in the meantime.

Jam: 03:15

K.

Melissa: 03:16

Okay. 1, what do you think happens when a candle burns? 2, what do you think that smoke is made of? And 3, how did This seeming lighting of the smoke light the candle back on fire.

Jam: 03:42

Interesting. Those are very good questions.

Melissa: 03:46

Do you feel like you have answers to any of them?

Jam: 03:50

Not at the moment. I'm chewing on them.

Melissa: 03:52

Okay. We'll chew on those.

Jam: 03:54

I've never really thought about candles deeply at all. So

Melissa: 03:58

Neither had I. And that's why I'm really excited to do your episode on Thursday about how candles work because I Had no idea. Mhmm. It blew my mind. And it's very chemistry, so I was very excited.

Jam: 04:13

Nice.

Melissa: 04:14

Yeah.

Jam: 04:15

Okay. Interesting. I've been waiting a little bit.

Melissa: 04:17

So this is a short a shorty episode. Try it at home if you're a grown up and you feel safe and be really full and, you know, don't light anything on fire. Very carefully, you can try this experiment At home, I would not do this with younger kids. You can show older kids maybe, or you can show them, but I wouldn't let the kids try it unless you're very confident in their fire safety skills.

Jam: 04:41

And is it possible for this to work with other kinds of candles, not just birthday candles? Like

Melissa: 04:45

Yes. I just

Jam: 04:46

a household

Melissa: 04:46

random the candles that you can Yeah. I think it would work with any, but I think it's safest with a candle that kinda sticks up straight.

Jam: 04:54

You know?

Melissa: 04:55

Like a birthday candle. I I think there could be some dangers involved in doing it in a candle that's in a hollowed out glass thing or something like that. Mhmm. Especially when the The wax builds up on the sides, I would have some safety concerns about that.

Jam: 05:09

Okay. Gotcha.

Melissa: 05:10

So I would prefer a birthday candle or if you have those, like, nice dinner candles, you know, those white ones or the red Once Mhmm. Stick candles, you could use those as well.

Jam: 05:18

Okay. Sweet. Sweet.

Melissa: 05:20

That would be my suggestion.

Jam: 05:22

Awesome.

Melissa: 05:23

Great. Well, I hope you guys enjoy it, and can't wait to to talk to you about it on Thursday.

Jam: 05:27

Okay. See you guys then. This episode of chemistry for your life was created by Melissa Coleenie and Jam Robinson. And we'd like to give a special thanks to E Robinson who reviewed this episode.