Eli5: What happens to all the melted candle over time? Are we just inhaling a whole candle while it burns?

Question

Eli5: What happens to all the melted candle over time? Are we just inhaling a whole candle while it burns?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

The stuff that melts is the stuff that burns. The wick isn’t really the main thing that burns. It just transports melted wax to the flame. The wax then evaporates into fumes, which react with oxygen.

As the wax is make of long chains of carbon with a load of hydrogen stuck on, burning it forms carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapour (H2O), which goes in to the air.

So yep, we’ll inhale some of the stuff that was the candle, but in a form we inhale anyway!