Air Experiment - Candles Need Air

Did you know that fire needs air, just like we do?  This is how we found this out...

Equipment:
- 3 tea light candles
- 3 different sized jars
- an adult to use the lighter or matches

We put 3 tea light candles on the table and Mrs. Grant lit each one.  We discussed what was in the jars.  Many of us said "Nothing!" but some students knew that AIR was in the jars.


We each made a hypothesis about what would happen if we covered the lit candles with the jars. Some of our ideas included:
- the jars will burn
- the table will catch on fire
- there will be a smoke bomb
- it will explode (of course!)

 Mrs. Grant carefully put the jars upside down over the lit candles.  We watched and waited to see what would happen.


The smallest jar didn't have much air inside of it. We managed to get a photo of the candle flame before it went out.

In this photo, the two smaller jars are filled with smoke because their candles went out and the smoke was trapped inside the jars.

The large jar still has a flame. It is hard to see but there is a brightness of the flame.

The large jar lasted the longest because it had more air inside it.




So the scientists of division 8 know that fire needs air.  If a fire runs out of air, it will go out.