Traveling Flame Science Trick

You know you can light a candle with another candle, but if you blow one of them out, did you know you can relight it from a distance? In this trick, you'll blow out a candle and relight it by causing flame to travel along a path of smoke.

How to Do the Traveling Flame Trick

1. Light a candle. Have a second source of flame ready, such as another candle, a lighter, or a match.

2. Blow out the candle and immediately place the other flame into the smoke.

3. The flame will travel down the smoke and will relight your candle.

How the Traveling Flame Trick Works

This fire trick is based on how candles work. When you light a candle, the heat from the flame vaporizes the cande wax. When you blow the candle out, vaporized wax briefly remains in the air. If you apply a heat source quickly enough, you can ignite the wax and use that reaction to relight the wick of the candle.

You can watch a YouTube video of this project to see a candle relight itself.