Light a Candle Without Touching the Wick

Whether you’re just experimenting or want to show off a magic trick, lighting a candle without touching a flame to the wick is fun and awe-inspiring. The wax in a candle provides it fuel to burn. In this experiment, after the candle has been put out, some vaporized wax still remains above the wick in the smoke from the candle. Therefore, you can reignite this vaporized fuel, and it will, in turn, reignite the wick.

Steps

Setting Up Your Candle Experiment

  1. Choose your candles.[1] For the best results, you want to use candles that are fairly large and haven’t yet been burned down. It’s fine if they’ve been used slightly.
    • Candles are made from all different types of waxes and materials. Try choosing a few different types to compare your results and see which works best.
    • Gather soy, gelatin, paraffin, beeswax, bayberry, or soy candles.
    • Different types of wax have different rates of evaporation.
  2. Set up your area. You want to place your candles on a clean, flat surface. Put your candles in candle holders, and lay newspaper on the table underneath them to catch any dripping wax.
    • Make sure that your candle area is free from any flammable items that could catch fire.
    • If you have long hair, pull it back, and don’t wear loose-fitting clothing.
    • Even though you’re just working with candles, you still want to take precautions around fire.
  3. Decorate your area. If you want to light a candle without touching the wick as a magic trick for your friends, rather than just as an experiment, consider giving the space where you’ll present your trick a little bit of pizzazz.
    • Hang a black sheet or large piece of black poster board behind your candles. This will make the flame more prominent and visible. Just make sure that these are far enough from the flame that they aren’t a fire hazard.
    • Place a banner or poster with sayings about magic behind your hands.
    • You can also place nonflammable magical objects, like crystals, around your candles.[2]

Burning Your Candle

  1. Light your candle with matches or a lighter.[3] Use whatever you feel comfortable using to light your candle, whether that is a lighter or matches.
    • Long matches or a grill lighter works well to protect your hand while lighting the candle.
    • If you don’t have a long lighter, you can use regular matches or a lighter to light the end of a spaghetti noodle, and then use this noodle to light the wick of your candle.
    • Initially, you will touch light the candle by touching the wick.
  2. Allow the candle to burn. You want the wick to char a bit. Allow it to turn slightly black. This will give you time to build up the vaporized fuel in the air and relight the candle.
    • Don’t leave the candle unattended.
    • You should burn it until you see a glowing red ember on the end.[4]
  3. Blow out the candles. You want to blow out your candles, rather than using another method of extinguishing them.
    • Blowing out your candles will maximize the smoke above the wick.
    • Don’t blow out your candle until you are ready to do your trick, and reignite it, as this works best just after you’ve blown the candle out.

Reigniting the Candle Without Touching It

  1. Light a match or lighter about an inch above the candlewick. You don’t want your lighter to touch the candle at all. However, it works best if you can move your flame within the column of smoke from your candle.
    • Light the candle smoke as soon after you blow out the candle as you can.
    • You can light any area around the candle that you see smoke, even if it isn’t directly above the wick.
  2. Experiment with heights. To make your trick more impressive, try relighting the smoke of the candle from different distances above the candle. This will help you understand how far away from the candle you can still light it.
    • Begin at about an inch above the candle.
    • Then, move farther upward, in small increments, until the candle no longer lights.
  3. Add a flourish.[5] If you want to present this experiment, as a magic trick, you want to provide a bit of a show to the audience of your friends and family.
    • Talk through the trick. Try to catch their eyes. You want them to only focus on the candles when you’re about the relight them without touching the wick.
    • Talk in a booming voice, and project your confidence.


Tips

  • When you are choosing the area to do your experiment, make sure there are no drafts or wind that will blow the smoke.

Things You'll Need

  • a candle
  • a candle holder
  • a lighter or matches

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/Relighting-A-Candle/
  2. ↑ http://www.decoist.com/2014-03-19/decorate-with-stones/
  3. ↑ http://www.terrificscience.org/lessonpdfs/BurningCandle.pdf
  4. ↑ http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/experiments/exp/jumping-flames/
  5. ↑ http://www.goodtricks.net/magic-tips-tricks-success.html

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