Today let’s do some easy science at home and play with elevation and gases with just some candles, glass jars, and water. By simply elevating a lit tea light in a pan of water and covering the candle with a flask or other jar you can see the water rising into the flask like magic. Except it’s not really magic, it’s science. As the air inside the flask heats up from the flame the air molecules expand and take up more space. Then as the flame goes out the air begins to cool down and take up less space creating a lower pressure for the water to travel up the glass.
Learn how to perform the experiment yourself in the full Science Sunday segment below.
There is so much more Science Sunday to explore. Check out the full gallery of segments on our blog: https://ctsciencecenter.org/blog_categories/science-sunday/.
Erica Presbie is a Community Engagement and Marketing Intern at the Connecticut Science Center. She is a senior Marketing major at Endicott College and enjoys participating in the collegiate dance club as well as teaching kids dance classes in her free time.
