So this often comes up when I see people talking about how their candles go fast. There tends to be a comment mentioning that it’s because of “burn memory” meaning that the FIRST time you light the candle, if it’s blown out too soon (before the melted wax reaches the edges of jar), then from there on it might not melt to the edges of the container ever again and will continue to tunnel downward every time you light it. I guess I know what they’re describing, but this makes zero sense to me. When you go to light it at a later time….how would the candle know and why not just continue melting outward 😩
Not trying to zoom through this weirdly expensive Boys Smell I was gifted recently
In: Chemistry
People like to anthropomorphize things. Just because the term is ridiculous doesn’t mean the idea is not valid. Candle wax is fuel, that fuel cannot be used in solid form, it must be melted, and then the vapors are combusted. The heat from the combustion liquefies more candle wax. The wax is also a good insulator though, so if you heat it up, where you’ve made a pit, and don’t let that entire layer liquefy, it will be increasingly harder to spread the heat out, so the heat will increasingly concentrate toward the center. causing it to melt down, instead of out.
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