Candle Extinguisher | English
Channel: Arvind Gupta
Date: 2016-05-04

Today we will make a mini fire extinguisher with the help of three different heights of candles and a plastic jar. We will also practically see that carbon dioxide gas extinguishes fire. Fix a plastic flexible pipe near the base of the cylindrical box. Seal the joint with rubber glue to prevent leakage. Fix three different heights of candles on a piece of wood. Light the candles and place them in the box. Because of the presence of ample oxygen in the air the candles will keep burning. Now hold your breath for a few seconds. This will fill your lungs with carbon dioxide gas. Later, slowly exhale your breath through the tube into the box. Carbon dioxide being heavier than air will sink to the bottom of the box. As the level of carbon dioxide rises in the box first the shortest candle will be extinguished, then the middle candle will be put off. Lastly the tallest candle will extinguish. This experiment shows that carbon dioxide is heavier than air and it extinguishes fire. 

This work is supported by IUCAA (www.iucaa.in) and TATA Trust (www.tata.com/aboutus/sub_index/Tata-trusts)

Credits:,Ashok Rupner, Manish Jain, Pradnya Pujari, Shivaji Mane, Jyoti Hiremath, Arvind Gupta, Vidula Mhaiskar TATA Trust: Education is one of the key focus areas for Tata Trusts, aiming towards enabling access of quality education to the underprivileged population in India. To facilitate quality in teaching and learning of Science education through workshops, capacity building and resource creation, Tata Trusts have been supporting Muktangan Vigyan Shodhika (MVS), IUCAA's Children’s Science Centre, since inception. To know more about other initiatives of Tata Trusts, please visit www.tatatrusts.org