Investigate a candle burning inside an inverted beaker sealed with plasticine

Name: Jason Tian Class: G9P Date: 21 March 2024

Research question:
How does the volume of air trapped in an inverted glass beaker affect the burning time of a candle sealed
inside with plasticine?

Background:
Candle wax is a solid combustible material that used in candle which provides fuel for the burning of the
candle. wax is commonly used for a range of applications, including packaging, inks, crayons, and candles,
each these applications uses different types of waxes with different properties. A general wax has following
properties including candle wax that they are Solid at room temperature but melts down to liquid at higher
temperature, insoluble in water, they have smooth texture, low toxicity, reactivity, and odor. (candle.org,
N.D.)

For candle wax, paraffin is by far the most frequent used candle wax on a worldwide basis today. This type of
wax is a colorless, solid, crystalline ductile mixture which has low melting point, all properties of waxes, it was
mainly composed of saturated hydrocarbons molecules with a varying number of carbon atoms. (Goose
Creek Candle, 2019). Then chemical composition of paraffin wax is carbon and hydrogen and when complete
combustion appears in candle wax, the product of the process will be only carbon dioxide and small amount
of product with no ash and byproduct produced until the candle is completely burnt out. (Goose Creek
Candle, 2019).

A combustion reaction is a type of chemical reaction where substance, usually the fuel, reacts with oxygen
and release energy usually in the form of heat and light. It was generally a type of exothermic redox process.
(BYJU’S, N.D.). The product of combustion reaction is gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapor and
oxidized fuel usually know as smoke. Combustion reactions are usually accompanied with flames. (BYJU’S,
N.D.). All combustion must include oxygen as a reactant combining with other substances.

Complete combustion reactions, also referred as clean combustion reaction, can be broadly categorized into
two types which are complete combustion and incomplete combustion, Complete Combustion occurs when
there is a sufficient supply of oxygen to allow the fuel to react completely, producing only carbon dioxide,
water as the product, it is the complete oxidation of the fuel. A common example of complete combustion of
the is the burning of wax candle.

Incomplete combustion reactions occurs when there is an insufficient supply of oxygen for the fuel to react
fully. The product of incomplete combustion may include carbon monoxide, carbon and water, incomplete
combustion may lead to more emission than complete combustion such as soot, because of this, it sometime
referred as dirty combustion reaction. An example of this type of combustion is the burning of wood. (BYJU’S,
N.D.)

Enable for a combustion reaction to occur, there are three essential conditions required, the presence of the
combustible substance, which are the fuel, air to supply oxygen, and ignition temperature to start the
combustion process. The fuel can be both solid, liquid, or gas, examples of fuel can be wood, paper, or
matchstick. The Ignition temperature is the temperature required for a substance to ignite, To start the
combustion, the fuel must reach its vaporization temperature on the surface, allowing it to turn into vapor.
these 3 essential conditions are often called the fire tringles. Without one of these conditions, the
combustion reactions cannot take place.
For extinguishing a fire, we must remove at least one of the elements in the fire triangle discussed above,
which are the fuel, oxygen, ignition temperature. As there are three elements in the fire triangle, there are 3
main ways to extinguish a fire.

Cooling is the way removing the heat in the combustion reactions, heat supports the sustain of an ongoing
fire. When the temperature of the burning material is reduced below its ignition point, the fire is unable to
sustain and extinguish itself soon. A common substance used in cooling is water, which it absorbs heat from
the fire and eventually evaporate. This effectively reducing the temperature to stop the combustion process.
(Admin, 2021)

Starvation is the way of removing the combustible material or fuel during the combustion reaction. (Admin,
2021). Starvation is a slow process of extinguishing fire where it only stops the growth and prevent the
spread of the fire, the combustion will continue until all combustible material has been consumed. Starvation
can be done by physically remove unburnt combustible materials or creating firebreaks. Starvation method is
effective when used to extinguish outdoor fire such as wildfire or industrial fire. For example, the fire breaks,
which is removing vegetations around the fire not allowing to spread is effective in extinguishing wildfires.
(Admin, 2021) The starvation method can be used with other method together.

Smothering is the way of removing oxygen during the combustion reaction. (Admin, 2021) By cutting of
oxygen supply, the chemical equation will be interrupted and eventually causing the fire to be burnt off.
There are several of removing combustion including covering the fire and using fire extinguisher, certain type
of fire extinguisher work based on the principle of smothering, it seals up the air and stop the combustion
reaction from receiving the fire. The smothering method can be used to extinguish small sized fire but hard
for the big ones.

Air is a mixture of gases which makes up the world’s atmosphere, which that air is a type of mixture. The
composition of air was not always constant and varies in different region of earth. For example, in polluted
areas, the percentage of carbon dioxide will be relatively high compared to other regions. For a general
component of air, Nitrogen was 78% of air, oxygen takes up 20.9%, carbon dioxide takes up 0.03%, argon
takes up 0.90%, the rest around 0.17% of air was a mixture of small amount of helium, hydrogen water
vapor, methane, and neon. (BYJU’S, N.D.)

A candle was unable to burn without the occurrence of air, as air contains oxygen which support
combustion, without oxygen, the combustion reaction is unable to happen which the candle is unable to
burn. For a candle to extinguishes, smothering method discussed above can be used, this is because air
contains nitrogen which is an incombustible material and does not support combustion. (BYJU’S, N.D.)
Our experiment investigates how does the volume of air trapped in an inverted glass beaker affect the
burning time of a candle, moreover it investigates how does air support the combustion process of the
experiment, and how does the candle stop when the beaker is eventually lack of oxygen.

This experiment helps us understands the combustion reaction and about the fire triangle, it shows us an
example of using smothering to extinguish fires. The global context of our experiment is globalization and
sustainability, the SLO of this experiment is caring an international mildness.

Hypothesis:
I hypothesize that the volume of air trapped in an inverted glass beaker has a direction proportional
relationship to the burning time of a candle sealed inside with plasticine, which the burning time and the
candle increase as the volume of air increase and vice versa. Moreover, it is hypothesized that with the
volume of the beaker large enough the trend of the burning time will tend to be stable as the rate of oxygen
consumption of candle is constant and carbon dioxide does not support combustion. For the IV, the result of
200ml, 300ml, 400ml will have a huge difference while the result of 500ml and 600ml won’t.
Variables:

Table 1. Independent variable for the experiment testing the burning time of candle in a sealed inverted
beaker.
Independent Description
The IV / unit
The range of the volume is 255ml, 432ml, 482ml, 620ml, 672ml, there one IV and 5 level of
The actual this IV in the whole experiment. The volume of the beaker will be manipulated by using 5
volume of the different beaker which are 200ml, 300ml, 400ml, 500ml and 600ml beaker. This IV are
beaker/ml aimed to investigate the burning time of a candle sealed inside with plasticine, altering the
volume of the beaker will affect the burning time of a candle sealed inside with plasticine.

Table 2. Dependent variable for the experiment testing the burning time of candle in a sealed inverted
beaker.
Dependent Description
The DV / unit
The burning time of a candle sealed inside with plasticine will be affected by
the burning time of a changing the actual volume of the beaker, the burning time of the candle will be
candle sealed inside with measure using a timer which are manually operated, the timer will start when the
plasticine/Second candle were sealed inside, and stops when the combustion stops. The
measurement will be repeated 5 times for every level of independent variables.

Table 3. controlled variable for the experiment testing the burning time of candle in a sealed inverted beaker.
Controls Description
Control Variable /
unit
The candle must be controlled, and it must be ensured that the same candle is used in
every measurement in every level of independent variable. Specifically, the size and the
material of the candle must be controlled. For the size of the candle, the size of the
candle affects its burning time, a bigger sized candle has more wax, therefore have more
combustible materials that can be used on the combustion process and leads to a longer
burning time. reducing the size of the candle decrease the fuel and leads to a shorter
The candle
burning time. For the material of the candle, every material has its unique chemical
composition, properties, especially combustion properties. Some wax burns faster than
other waxes which may significantly affect the testing result. Each trial will use paraffin
made wax of the same size. By controlling the candle, it can be ensured that any
differences in burning time are due to the volume of air in the beaker and not the
difference of fuel.
The temperature inside the beaker need to be controlled, Increasing or decreasing the
temperature side the beaker will unfairly increase or decrease the burning time of the
candle, an increase of the temperature will likely accelerate the combustion reaction
Temperature inside and affect the result as an increase of temperature make it easier for the candle to melt
the beaker/% down, also its accelerate the reaction and lower the supply of oxygen with make the
candle burns faster and affects the result. Each trial will start after washing the beaker
with the same temperature of the water making sure the beaker cools down and keep a
constant temperature.
 The room temperature must be controlled as increasing or decreasing the room
temperature accelerate the combustion process reason are discussed above. Moreover,
Room temperature increasing or decreasing the room temperature will change the temperature of the
during the beaker and the candle itself as they are both stored inside the lab, varying the room
experiment/% temperature will change the test result unfairly. The room temperature will be
controlled by finishing the lab in an hour which the lab will be unlikely to change its
temperature within an hour.
The sealing area of the beaker must be controlled as using different sealing method
changes the amount of beaker’s surface that are being covered and affect the burning
Sealing area of the time. less area being sealed will cause more oxygen to leak into the beaker and sustain
beaker/cube the combustion process. And this affects the result by the burning time of the candle.
centimeter The sealing area of the beaker will be controlled by using the same sealing method
which is sealing the whole beaker top ensure there are lest amount of oxygen leak into
the beaker and increase the accuracy of the result.

Table 4. Uncontrolled variable for the experiment testing the burning time of candle in a sealed inverted
beaker.
Uncontrolled Description
Uncoontrolled
Variable
Also, this variable has to be controlled, the quality of the sealing is not likely the be
The quality of the
entirely controlled has this step has to be done manually and slightly variable can be
seal with plasticine
created and this may affect the burning time of the candle.
The timing of the The timing may not be controlled and it is also been done manually and the will be
timer slightly variations.

Equipment:
Table 5. Equipment used for testing the burning time of candle in a sealed inverted beaker.
Equipment Measurable unit Quantity
Timer second 1
beaker ml 5
Lighter No units 1
Graduated cylinder ml 1

Material:
Table 6. material used for testing the burning time of candle in a sealed inverted beaker.
Material Measurable unit Quantity
Plasticine grams 30
Candle No units in this experiment 25

Method:
1. Fill the 200ml beaker with the water, make sure the beaker is full.
2. Pour the water in the beaker into the 250ml graduate cylinder, this is to measure the actual volume
of the beaker.
3. When the graduate cylinder is full, but the beaker still has water, pour the water in graduate cylinder
out and refill it with the rest of the water, it then needs to be added together.
4. Record the actual length of the200ml beaker.
5. Repeat step 1-4 for 300ml, 400ml, 500ml, 600ml beakers.
6. Prepare 30ml of plasticine.
 7. Use all the plasticine to seal the 200ml beaker, only the beaker top is needed.
8. Light up one candle and prepare one experimenter holding the candle.
9. Invert the beaker with plasticine, and use it to seal the candle, at the same time, start the timer.
10. Wait until the candle extinguished, stop the timer at the same time.
11. Repeat 4 more trial of 200ml beaker using the step 6-10.
12. Record the data.
13. Repeat step 6-12 with 300ml, 400ml, 500ml and 600ml beaker.

Data collection:
Table 7. Raw data of the actual volume of beaker which marked 200ml, 300ml, 400ml, 500ml and 600ml.
The actual volume of the beaker is measure with filling water in the beaker, then pour the water in the
beaker into graduated cylinder. 250ml graduated cylinder is used.
Marked volume of beaker (ml) Actual volume of beaker (ml)
200 255
300 432
400 482
500 620
600 672

Table 8. the extinguish time of candle sealed inside the beaker of 200ml, 300ml, 400ml, 500ml, 600ml with
plasticine.
The extinguish time of the candle is measure using timer, the timer start when the candle is sealed with the
beaker which sealed with plasticine, and timer ends when the candle extinguishes, each level of the beaker is
tested 5 time to ensure accuracy.
Extinguish time of the candle (s)
Actual volume Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Trial 5
of the beaker
(ml)
200 21.03 19.72 13.13 16.37 15.48
300 26.97 16.51 21.59 24.44 19.03
400 25.56 17.78 20.01 22.23 26.72
500 36.76 36.88 37.87 34.54 31.21
600 36.25 37.06 24.57 33.96 40.41

Data processing:
Table 9. Processed data of the average extinguishes time of candle sealed inside the beaker of 200ml, 300ml,
400ml, 500ml, 600ml with plasticine.
Actual volume of the beaker (ml) Average extinguishes time of the candle (s)
200 17.146
300 21.708
400 22.46
500 35.452
600 34.45
A calculation of average is used in this process data to calculate the Average extinguishes time of the candle
(s) with different beakers. This calculation is performed to simplify the graph later and makes the data more
visible and easy to compare and get the final result.

The formula used to calculate the average time taken is (trial1+trial2+trial3+trial4+trial5)/5, the unit for the
formula is seconds.

Sample calculation:

Sample calculation of the Average extinguishes time of the candle sealed in inverted cylinder of 200ml:
(21.03+19.72+13.13+16.37+15.48)/5=85.73/5≈17.146s

Sample calculation of the Average extinguishes time of the candle sealed in inverted cylinder of 600ml:
(36.25+37.06+24.57+33.96+40.41)/5=172.25/5=34.45s

Data presentation:

Table 9, Graph 1. Processed graph of the average extinguishes time of candle sealed inside the beaker of
200ml, 300ml, 400ml, 500ml, 600ml with plasticine.

The average was calculated using the average calculation formula, the graph are created using the data
processed from table 9.

average extinguishes time of candle sealed inside

the beaker of 200ml, 300ml, 400ml, 500ml,
Time take for the candle to extinguish(s)

600ml with plasticine

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650

Actual volume of the beaker (ml)

This is a scatted graph, the x-axis of the graph is the actual volume of the beaker, the y-axis of the graph is the
time take for the candle to extinguish, this graph is used to observe the trend of the candle extinguishes.

Conclusion and evaluation:

Analysis:

The experiment was aim to investigate about the topic of How does the volume of air trapped in an inverted
glass beaker affect the burning time of a candle sealed inside with plasticine, the result that I hypothesize
were the time taken for the candle to extinguish and the actual volume of the beaker are directly
proportional to each other and if the volume of the beaker are large enough the trend of the burning time
will be stable. The general data shou be 200ml, 300ml, 400ml will have a huge difference while the result of
500ml and 600ml won’t.

The data collected, and as observed in graph 2, the data from 200ml to 500ml generally shows a growing
trend, and as 500ml to 600ml, the data slightly decrease. The total amount of data collected in this
experiment were data of 5 trial of the extinguish time of the candle for each level of IV, and the actual
volume of the beaker, this part also contains 5 data, each beaker has one.

Scientific Context and Hypothesis Validity:

The data collected generally proved by hypothesis valid, as according to data graph 2 and table 9, that the
volume of air trapped in an inverted glass beaker does has a direction proportional relationship to the
burning time of a candle sealed inside with plasticine. For 200ml, the average candle extinguish time is
17.146 second, for 300ml, the average time is 21.708 second, for 400ml, the average time is 22.46 second,
for 500ml, the average time 35.452 second, a general growing trend is clearly seen from this part of the data,
while the growing between 300ml-400ml is slightly more than the growing between 400ml-500ml, and the
data presented here support my hypothesis and proven by hypothesis valid.

The data collected of average candle extinguished time sealed in 300ml inverted beaker, according to graph 2
and table, were 34.45, compared to the data from 500ml, there are an slightly decrease, which disprove my
first part of my hypothesis, which sate the average candle extinguished time and the actual volume of the
beaker are directly proportional, by support my second part of my hypothesis, which states that as the
volume increases, the time the trend of the burning time will tend to be stable, this part of the data proves
because the variation between this two set of number are only 1.002, which is much lesser then the variable
value of the previous set. And because the variation is small, this variation may cause to the mistake of the
data as the data are manually collected, so overall, my hypothesis is supported and proven valid.

Evaluation of procedure:

There are several weaknesses that can be found and improved in the procedure.

In the step 2 of the procedure, it is said to pour water into a graduated cylinder of 250ml, the actual volume
of the beaker is much more than 250ml, especially for the 600ml beaker, the actual volume of that was
678ml, which take around 3 time of pouring into the graduated cylinder, during this process, because it is
manually operated, there are water that are splitting outside of the graduated cylinder, which may make the
actually length we measure inaccurate, which can leads to mistake in the analyze of the data afterward.

Another weaknesses of the procedure is that after one trial, another trial are done immediately afterward,
and the temperature of the beaker may not been cooled down, which one of the controlled variable are not
being controlled in this situation, this may leads to a faster melting point of the candle, which this became an
extraneous variable and possibly may affect the result we have collected for the dependent variable, and this
might greatly affect the final result. A possible clue found in the data that support this, is that in the data of
time for the candle to extinguish. For the data of 200ml, 300ml, 400ml, the time use recorded for the first
trial is always the longest, and for 500ml and 600ml, they are 2-3 rd the longest, this might prove that the
candle burns longer when the beaker is remaining not heated.

There are also strength that can be found in the experiment.

The first strength in the procedure is most of the variables are being controlled, the whole experiment are
being conduct at the same room temperature, the candle are both remained the same, and the plasticine in
every beaker are controlled the same, every beaker is sealed on 30 grams of plasticine, and we tries to cover
the whole beaker top as much as we can.

Another strength of the experiment are we have done 5 trial for each level of independent variable which is
the volume of the beaker the ensure the accuracy of the result, and the final result we have processed are
based on the average data of this 5 trial, so even if there are outliers, it will not demonstrate significantly in
the process graph and will of have that much of influences of the final analyzing of the graph which ensure
the validity of the final analyzing.

The measurement Is reliable, there are sufficient replication of trials, we have done five trials and that makes
the measurement reliable, we also calculated the mean of the data. We used the tools and follow the process
correctly, there are outlier in the experiment, but we have use the mean of each data so It won’t affect the
data significantly.

There are several improvements that could be made.

For the first weakness mentioned on the procedure, one improvement that can be made is instead of using a
250ml graduated cylinder, we have choose to use a 750ml graduate cylinder or an 1 liter graduate cylinder,
this can maximized decrease the manually error created during the experiment, there will be some water be
split, but we only need to pour the water into the graduated cylinder once, so it will be much better than
pouring water to the cylinder 2 or 3 times. Also for a bigger volume graduate cylinder, there should be a
larger area to pure and can make it more accurate. Another improvement that can be made if there are no
graduated cylinder that has a bigger volume were to do several trials similar like the main experiment, we
can do 5 trial for each beaker and calculate the mean, this can also ensure this part of the data is accurate.

Improvement that can be made for the second weakness on the procedure are, as mentioned on the
controlled variable, after each trial, the beaker can be washed and wipe clean to start the second trial, by
using the same temperature of water, the temperature of the beaker will be likely the same. Because the
beaker are already inverted and sealed with plasticine, and plasticine may lost its viscosity after touching
water, another improvement can be made by creating an interval between every experiment, the interval
can be set a 5 minutes interval, make this can make the beaker cools down naturally to the room
temperature.

Bibliography:
Candle.org. (N.D.). ELEMENTS OF A CANDLE: WAX. Available at:
https://candles.org/elements-of-a-candle/wax/ .( Accessed 19, Mar 2024)

Goose Creek Candle. (2019). What is Candle Wax Made Of?. Available at:
https://goosecreekcandle.com/blogs/candle-blog/what-is-candle-wax-made-of#:~:text=Paraffin%20wax
%20in%20particular%20is .( Accessed 19, Mar 2024)

BYJU’S, (N.D.). Combustion Reaction. Available at: https://byjus.com/chemistry/combustion-reaction/.

( Accessed 19, Mar 2024)

BYJU’S, (N.D.). Introduction to the Components of Air. Available at:

https://byjus.com/chemistry/components-of-air/.( Accessed 19, Mar 2024)

Admin, (2021). THE FIRE TRIANGLE: HOW DO YOU STOP COMBUSTION AND EXTINGUISH A FIRE?. Available at:
https://www.evacuatoralarms.com/blog/how-to-stop-combustion-extinguish-fire/.( Accessed 20, Mar 2024)