MadSci Network: Chemistry
Query:

Re: How can I collect and measure candle soot?

Date: Fri Nov 14 01:46:04 2003
Posted By: Sean Hunt, Secondary School Teacher, Science, ISM
Area of science: Chemistry
ID: 1067310618.Ch
Message:

Dear student,
your idea for collecting soot seems to me to be a good one. The candle can be placed underneath an object such as a bowl or jar and the soot produced should stick to the object.

Make sure your bowl has a large surface area (is wide) so that you can collect as much soot as possible. Weigh the bowl before your experiment then measure its weight after a fixed time has passed. The difference should give you the weight of soot. Be sure to make the test as fair as possible by keeping the distance between the candle and the bowl, the size of the wick and the time constant.

It sounds like you have picked a great idea for a science fair project.

Sean Hunt


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