DOES COLOR MATTER?Miranda D. Adams

Bellwood-Antis High School

9th grade

WHAT COLOR CANDLE BURNS THE LONGEST?

I tested the candle colors; white for the lightest, blue, orange, red, and purple for the darkest…

HOW COULD THIS HELP ME?

Once you find out which candle color burns the slowest and or lasts the

longest you could save some money!

REFLECTION

Light-colored objects reflect more light and heat, compared to dark-colored

objects

Light colored candle won’t get as warm from the heat of the flame

ABSORPTION

A perfect absorber reflects no radiant energy and appear black, or dark.

Dark candles will get warmer from the heat of the flame

MY HYPOTHESIS

The white candle, the lightest, would burn the slowest when compared to the

other four colors.

FIRST ATTEMPT

Burn candles until they went out.

BETTER METHOD weighed the candles on a mass scale.

PROCEDURE

Buy 24 candles, 6 candles of each color

Then lighted the candles in the following order; orange, white, purple, red, and blue.

burned all five candles for 30 minutes

After the 30 minutes I measured: temperature of the melted wax the final mass

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Experimental variableColors of the candles

Experimental groups different colored candles

White, blue, orange, red, and purple

Controls on candles

height = 5 ±0.1 cm.diameter = 3.8 ±0.1 cmwick length = 1.1 ±0.1 cminitial mass = 46.6 ±0.1 gcandle's brand

Controls on Environment

Room temperature was 22.2° ± 0.1 C Distance between them No drafts

AVERAGE MASS LOST

white orange blue red purple0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Colors of candles

Avera

ges m

ass lost

(g)

TEMPERATURE OF BURNT WAX

white orange blue red purple0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Colors of candles

Tem

pera

ture

(C

)

CONCLUSION

I found out that the fastest burning candle was not the white one.

Therefore, I reject my hypothesis which stated that the lightest, the white, would burn the fastest.

So according to my experiment color does matter!!

IMPROVEMENTS

Burn the candles longer than 30 min

Use a more sensitive scale

FURTHER RESEARCH

I would get more colors of candles

Shape of the candles

MY MATERIALS I USED… 5 candle-lite candles

White Light blue Orange Red Purple

Fisher EMD thermometer An everyday lighter Pie pan for burning Timer (clock) Ruler