Eli5: Why when you blow a little “wind” on a candle it will blow out? But very strong winds are known to increase the size of wildfires and make them spread more easily?

Question

You would think the more wind the faster the fire gets extinguished, I have a feeling the size of the fire matters but i just wonder why and where the line is drawn between a candle and a wildfire in extinguishing it when blowing wind on it goes from a very effective to a super ineffective technique.

In: 0

Answer 1

The wind only aggravates the fire to spread, infact it’s not “blowing out” on the candle. The fire looks for other combustible things to “set it on fire”. Since the candle has only one wick, the fire can’t find anything else and dies out.