Re: How does a candle burn?

I have to explain to fourth grade students in special education exactly what makes a candle burn. I know that it involves the wick, but I am unsure of how explain. I have searched the internet, but cannot find a site that explains why a candle burns. Please help!!

The candle flame melts the top of the candle, and the liquid wax is drawn up the wick into the flame. The heat of the flame turns the wax into a gas. The gas spreads out into the flame where it mixes with the oxygen in the air and burns.

Here is a page that NASA has on the effects of gravity on candle flames.

I found the page by using AltaVista and entering: +candle +wax +flame +burn

The "+" signs forced all pages to have all the terms used. I got over 1600 results, so I clicked on the refine button and "required" entries that referred to candles but "excluded" the poetry topics that seemed to be confusing the scientific mission. I found the NASA site on the second page of results. Hopes this helps with your future searches.