Day 03 - Wax Comparison

Before comparing waxes, we should spend a few minutes talking about the role of covalent bonds in combustion reactions. Every molecule consists of multiple atoms stuck together electrochemically - interaction of electrons sticks them together. When covalent bonds are broken or shifted from high-energy bonds to low-energy bonds, energy gets released and the reaction is called "exothermic." Combustion reactions are all exothermic reactions, and we rely on combustion reactions to give us heat and light. With our current project, we are collecting a lot of stored chemical potential energy in the form of wax and we are placing a wick at the center of it so that we can focus the exothermic reaction at one spot, such that the exothermic energy is enough to cause the soot (vaporized carbon) to glow with heat.

Before we can make candles, we need to research how they are made. Spend some time today looking up DIY candle-making instructions to get a sense for what we are going to be doing. We should be in position to make our first candles two classes from today, as you can see in the navigation menu for this unit.

All candles rely on wax to hold their chemical potential energy, but not all waxes perform the same. They melt at different temperatures and and have different textures before and after melting. Some expand more when heated. Some make for better candles than others. We will need to test our options, and we're limiting our options to three oils that are reliably solid at room temperature but which melt readily: palm wax, soy wax, and paraffin wax. Once you have completed writing up your candle-making procedure, plan out a way to test the 3 wax types for suitability in candle-making.

Combustion

any exothermic reaction in which oxygen combines with a fuel

Covalent Bonds

bonds formed when two atoms share at least one electron; these are the strongest molecular bonds and thus represent the most potential chemical energy