Flickering Flames Experiment

I did an experiment involving flame, baking soda and vinegar.

RESEARCH QUESTION:

What happens when baking soda mixes with vinegar?

HYOTHISIS:

If I mix baking soda with vinegar then it explode because of their reaction to each other

MATERIALS:

1 250 mL beaker

1 lighter or matches

1 long candle (~8cm)

1 short candle (~5 cm)

100 mL Vinegar

2.5 mL Bicarbonate of Soda (baking soda)

METHOD:

1. Take the two candles and place them next to each other in the beaker. You will have to melt the bottom of the candle before placing it in the beaker so it sticks.

2. Pour in about 100ml of vinegar.

3. Carefully light the candles.

4. Add 2.5 mL of bicarbonate of soda

5. Carefully observe what happens

6. Record results.

CONCLUSION:

My hypothesis was somewhat incorrect. A long time ago I learned that baking soda and vinegar will ‘bubble’ when mixed and I put that in my hypothesis. But I didn’t include anything about what would happen to the flame or why it happened.

While doing the experiment I observed that the flames went out when the bubbles touched it. This is because baking soda and vinegar produce CO2. And flames need oxygen so the bubbles (CO2) took away the oxygen and the flame.

If I did this experiment again, I would need to improve on making the candles stick to the bottom of the beaker. I didn’t do much either. So I would like to participate more next time too.