Investigation/experiment: How long a candle will burn if we place it into different size jars; small, medium and large jar.
◦What does fuel need to be able to burn?
◦Answer: It needs heat from another source.
◦Burning fuel needs some energy to start burning.
◦Do you think a fire needs oxygen to be able to live?
◦Answer: Yes
◦ I will be doing a demonstration in the videos page, where we will investigate how long a candle will burn if we place it into different size jars; small, medium and large jar.
Materials that will be needed:
Method for experiment:
1.Place the candle on the jar’s lid by burning some of the candle wax, dropping some of the wax liquid onto the lid and then place the candle onto the hot wax. Make sure that the candle is placed securely so that it stands up straight.
2.Light the candle with the matches/ lighter. Make sure that you work carefully and always make sure there is adult supervision. Don’t do this on your own at home, you can end up burning yourself badly.
3.Place the largest jar container over the candle, and start you stopwatch. Record results after the first jar.
4.Place the medium size jar over the lit candle, start the stopwatch and then record the results.
5.Place the small size jar over the lit candle, start the stopwatch and then record the results.
Parents/guardian should assist learners to check the following checklist when doing the experiment at home. Make sure to be careful when working with fire.
Predict Questions:
◦What do you think a fire needs to be able to keep it burning?
◦If we place a candle in a jar, light it and then close the jar, do you think the candle will keep burning?
◦Which candle do you think will stop burning first?
◦Which candle do you think will burn the longest?
Observation questions:
◦What happened to each flame?
◦Which candle stopped burning first? Was it under a container, if so, which container was it under?
◦Which candle burnt the longest?
Results- record the results by using the following table.
◦ Record the time of how long the candle kept on burning in the different size jars.
Questions after the experiment:◦
What do you think caused the candle to burn the longest during the demonstration?
◦How did the size of the container affect the time that candle burned?
◦What caused the candles to stop burning?
Summary and explanation of the experiment:
◦To be able to produce a flame or fire the following will be needed.
•Fuel = wood, paper, wax, coal
•Heat= matched, lighter etc
•Oxygen= air around us, all fires need oxygen to keep it alive and burning.
•An easy way to remember is thinking of a fire triangle.
•If any of the triangle sides are taken away, the fire will die.
Fire Triangle
Fuel:
Heat:
Oxygen- Air around us
◦So when we light a candle, we take a match or lighter near the candle wick. The heat from the flame melts the wax and turns a small amount of the candle wax fuel into a gas. The gas mixes with oxygen in the air to make a flame.
◦A candle will only burn if it has input energy which is something to start the burning, we used a lighter in today’s demonstration. Fuel which is the candle wax and then oxygen.
◦Fuel needs oxygen and heat to keep burning.
◦How do we usually stop a candle from burning?
◦Answer: We blow the candle out.
◦ We blow out the candle, so we are preventing the candle from getting oxygen because we are breathing Carbon Dioxide over it when we try blow it out. Our breath also moves the heat of the burning gas from it’s fuel, some people also make use of candle snuffers.
◦In the experiment, we stopped the candle from burning by cutting off the oxygen supple.
◦The smallest jar had the least amount of oxygen which cause the candle to die the fastest where as the largest jar had more oxygen which allowed the candle to burn for longer until it died.
Parent/guardian should assist learners by following the checklist when completing the experiment for effective teaching and learning to take place.
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