What Happened: In this independent lab, Maia Morgan and I made candles out of crayons. The first thing we did was shave a huge block of wax into small pieces we also broke crayons into pieces. The crayons main propose was to color the crayon. Next we put the all of the wax in crayons in a glass bowl inside of a bowling pot on a hot plate. The wax eventually melted down into a liquid almost the consistency of milk. and added lavender oil and we poured it into a jar with a wick glued to the bottom. Before the wax hardened we added some sequence for effect. Morgan decided to put hers in a snow cown cup and hers turned out really cool looking We had extra time after making the three of ours that we deiced to make make two extra candles because we had extra supplies. And we tried slightly different methods with each one to see which one would turn out the best. Our final result turned out nice it was like a real candle except on mine it sunk down a lot in the middle. The process was not what I expected, I thought the wax would melt a lot faster but it took a long time especially if the way pieces of wax were bigger.
Candles Molecular Level: We came up with these questions before we did the lab which we would try to answer through the process of the lab or through research after. The first one was, What are the chemical properties of wax? I researched and found that waxes are a type of chemical compounds that are like liquid plastic near high temperatures. The type of wax that is generally used in candles is called paraffin wax. Paraffin is different then standard wax because it has lubrication and insulation in it, it is mostly made out of petroleum and crude wax. Wax melts above 133 degrees so wax is a type of low viscosity liquid. All waxes made up of are organic compounds. The wax of the candle is the fuel for the flame and Our second question was Does wax change on a molecular level? (from solid, to liquid, to gas) the answer is yes because as the wax heats up it changes from a solid brick of wax to a liquid. We could easily see this in the process of our lab. The wax can also can change into a gas the liquid paraffin also vaporizes into a gas as it heats up. The next question kind of goes with the last one, Is the scent that burns off from a candle a gas? The answer is in a way yes, the heat of the flame vaporizes the wax and any perfumes or oils that you add. The reason the wick does not burn is the vaporizing wax cools the wick. Our next question was, Why do candles melt? Well the heat from the flame melts the wax in the wick and at the top of the candle the liquid wax is drawn up the wick by getting hotter and hotter until it turns into a gas. This gas mixes with oxygen in the air and is ignited by the flame that melted the wax in the first place.
The Product & What Next: I like the way our candles turned out, but there is things that I would change about this lab if we were to do it again. Instead of taking a whole period to cut the wax up I wish we just melted large chunks because I did not make a huge difference. Another thing I would have done is used the micro waves instead of a hot plate like we originally said in our proposal. I feel like microwaves would have made it a lot faster to melt the wax down because I feel that we did were not using our time wisely with the hot plate. Although I don't think that it is worth doing again because it is quite a simple lab and I feel that I have learned all the main concepts out of this lab.
Group Work: I think our group worked well together. Our end product was successful and in the other labs that I've done my product never turned out the way we wanted it to. We all worked together to bring in the supplies. We tried to use our time wisely while still having a good time doing this lab. I would like to work with Maia and Morgan again.
Gained Knowledge:
Candles Molecular Level: We came up with these questions before we did the lab which we would try to answer through the process of the lab or through research after. The first one was, What are the chemical properties of wax? I researched and found that waxes are a type of chemical compounds that are like liquid plastic near high temperatures. The type of wax that is generally used in candles is called paraffin wax. Paraffin is different then standard wax because it has lubrication and insulation in it, it is mostly made out of petroleum and crude wax. Wax melts above 133 degrees so wax is a type of low viscosity liquid. All waxes made up of are organic compounds. The wax of the candle is the fuel for the flame and Our second question was Does wax change on a molecular level? (from solid, to liquid, to gas) the answer is yes because as the wax heats up it changes from a solid brick of wax to a liquid. We could easily see this in the process of our lab. The wax can also can change into a gas the liquid paraffin also vaporizes into a gas as it heats up. The next question kind of goes with the last one, Is the scent that burns off from a candle a gas? The answer is in a way yes, the heat of the flame vaporizes the wax and any perfumes or oils that you add. The reason the wick does not burn is the vaporizing wax cools the wick. Our next question was, Why do candles melt? Well the heat from the flame melts the wax in the wick and at the top of the candle the liquid wax is drawn up the wick by getting hotter and hotter until it turns into a gas. This gas mixes with oxygen in the air and is ignited by the flame that melted the wax in the first place.
The Product & What Next: I like the way our candles turned out, but there is things that I would change about this lab if we were to do it again. Instead of taking a whole period to cut the wax up I wish we just melted large chunks because I did not make a huge difference. Another thing I would have done is used the micro waves instead of a hot plate like we originally said in our proposal. I feel like microwaves would have made it a lot faster to melt the wax down because I feel that we did were not using our time wisely with the hot plate. Although I don't think that it is worth doing again because it is quite a simple lab and I feel that I have learned all the main concepts out of this lab.
Group Work: I think our group worked well together. Our end product was successful and in the other labs that I've done my product never turned out the way we wanted it to. We all worked together to bring in the supplies. We tried to use our time wisely while still having a good time doing this lab. I would like to work with Maia and Morgan again.
Gained Knowledge:
- How to use a hot plate.
- The safety procedures for microwaves hot plates and melted wax
- How candles are made
- What paraffin is
- Candles stages of mater
- Why candles can burn for such a long time
- An idea of what the chemical structure of wax is
- How candles work