Some of the wax has been burnt up - turned into energy (light and heat), gas (carbon dioxide and water vapour) and smoke (fine carbon particles). What is left is what melted but wasn't burnt.
The wax is the fuel of a candle. All fuels get used up when they are used to produce any form of energy/ You have to put more wood on the fire, and more gas in the car's tank.
I have a similar puzzle with my car. I notice that as I drive, the gas tank automatically empties itself! I mean, I can fill it up, and maybe 300 miles later I have to fill it up all over again! I wonder if the gas is compressing, or if the tank is absorbing it or what! 8^O I wish I could make it stop doing that because it's getting expensive!
I wonder if these two phenomena could be related! Are your wax and my gas going to the same place? If we found that place, we'd have all the candles and gas we wanted!
your candle wax gets burnt and released as a gas, hence the smell that it gives off. I wish that there was a crazy scientific reason, but that is pretty much it, it just changes phases.
Candle wax BURNS. That is what fuels the flame that you see when you ignite a candle.
When anything cools it shrinks.
executive summary: it burns.
I m just curious haha, I have a candle in a glass container (no way for the wax to spill over, no way for it to change shape in any way) and from the residue it seems like the wax was once higher up the sides of the container than it is now, after I ve burned it a few times.Maybe there s some cool scientific explanation?
