How to light a candle... with its own smoke

In our latest Wonderstuff online demo, scientist Zoe Laughlin reveals an interesting trick that involves lighting a candle without touching its wick!

How it's done

To know how the trick works you need to understand how a candle operates. When a candle burns it melts the wax, vaporizing it and then igniting that vapor.

When you blow out a candle, you'll notice a thick stream of white smoke, which contains vaporized wax.

As Zoe then demonstrates when you put a lit match to the smoke, the flame travels down the vapor reigniting the candle.

It's a nifty little trick which is made all the more better thanks to a little slowdown footage! Clever hey?