The Candle Problem

Introduction
Two candles of equal length are lit at the same time. One candle takes nine hours to burn out. The
other candle takes six hours to burn out. After how much time will the slower burning candle be
twice as long as the faster burning candle?

Variables
Let’s define some global variables we’ll be using in all of our explanations.

First off,

defines the number of hours.

. This defines the rate at which the slow candle burns off candle wax in h hours. We
determine this rate by dividing the time it takes for the candle to burn out (9 hours) by 9, to form a
unit rate of 1/9 candles burned per h hours.
Next,

. This defines the rate at which the fast candle burns off candle wax in h hours. We
determine this rate by dividing the time it takes for the candle to burn out (6 hours) by 6, to form a
unit rate of 1/6 candles burned per h hours.

defines the equal length of the two candle-sticks.

Explanation 1: Equation
Ah finally! On to our first explanation. This explanation will be utilizing an equation to try and figure
out the amount of hours it’ll take.

We can demonstrate the relationship given in the Introduction:

Since we’ve defined some variables already, let’s substitute them out:
Now, all we have to do is solve for h in terms of , the magic number of hours it’ll take to reach this
condition.

It looks like it’ll take of candle-burning in order to fulfill the condition specified in the
Introduction.

For example, if each candle-stick is 2 meters long, it will take ( )(2), or 9 hours for the candles to
reach the condition.