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Topic: Law of conservation of mass; applied to a burned candle  (Read 10378 times)

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Offline leadbetter

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Law of conservation of mass; applied to a burned candle
« on: September 22, 2007, 09:05:56 PM »
If a candle has lost half of its mass after burning for a few hours, how does this situation NOT violate the law of conservation of mass?
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Offline Bakegaku

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Re: Law of conservation of mass; applied to a burned candle
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2007, 09:12:25 PM »
What happens in a combustion reaction?
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Offline leadbetter

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Re: Law of conservation of mass; applied to a burned candle
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2007, 09:38:08 PM »
The "lost" mass been lost through smoke, but the mass hasn't "disappeared"; it has been converted from the hard wax candle to smoke, and taking into account the melted wax's mass, its mass has remained.

Obviously, I'm not spectacular with explanations. But I'm trying not to strive towards more scientific terms. Would I be at least "close"?
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Offline Yggdrasil

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Re: Law of conservation of mass; applied to a burned candle
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2007, 01:45:32 AM »
You are very close.  Lets say the wax has the formula C9H20 (note: this is not the correct formula for wax, but it'll be simpler to use in our example).  Write out the chemical formula for burning wax (i.e. the combustion of wax).  What are the chemical species that make up the smoke and float away from the wax as gasses? 
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