Can A Candle Burn without the Wick? Why?

All candles, they have a long wick in the centre of them - this wick is usually made of cotton thread. Yesterday at my family's service, we took glass jars of candles to church and I got caught up in thinking about the wick as I looked at the different lengths and thicknesses of the candles.

The main component of a candle is paraffin wax, which we all know. Paraffin itself is combustible and it can burn without a wick. But without a wick, when you light the top of a paraffin stick, the paraffin on top melts and covers the paraffin below, isolating the air and making it difficult for the paraffin below to burn. So a candle without a wick will go out on its own when it is lit.

If a wick is added, the burning wick is hotter than the burning paraffin wax, so the wax at the top melts quickly and becomes a puddle of paraffin oil. (As you can see for yourself, the top of a burning white candle looks like a small bowl containing a pool of oil.) The wick absorbs the paraffin oil and the topmost melted wax oil is vaporised by the heat of the wick burning and does not prevent the paraffin wax below from continuing to melt, vaporise and burn away. That is why candles have wicks.

Not only candles, but also old-fashioned vegetable oil lamps and paraffin lamps will not light properly without a wick. The wick has "capillary siphoning" properties and can suck the liquid from below to a higher level. The role of the wick is to use the high temperature of the lamp flame to vaporise the fuel absorbed by the wick a little, so that the lamp burns steadily.

Furthermore, the speed at which the candle burns is related to the thickness of the wick. If you look at the flame of the candle you will see that the flame is larger when the wick is thicker and more heat is generated at this time. When the flame is large, the liquefaction rate is faster and the reaction "burning" is larger. In conclusion, the thicker and longer the wick, the faster it burns and the shorter the burning time of the whole candle.

To summarise: the wick serves to provide a pathway for the hot wax to rise, so that it can vaporise in the flame and then mix with the air and burn. It is difficult to get the wax oil to burn directly.

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