Commentary Lecture Three: The Chemical History of a Candle - Products of Combustion

Bill Hammack & Don DeCoste highlight the key points of Lecture Three of Michael Faraday’s lectures on The Chemical History of a Candle. A free companion book helps modern viewers understand each lecture - details at www.engineerguy.com - as does this commentary track and closed captions for each lecture.
►Free Companion book to this video series
www.engineerguy.com/faraday
Text of Every Lecture | Essential Background | Guides to Every Lecture | Teaching Guide & Student Activities
In these lectures Michael Faraday’s careful examination of a burning candle reveals the fundamental concepts of chemistry, while at the same time superbly demonstrating the scientific method. In this lecture Faraday investigates one of the products of combustion produced by a candle - water. From water he produces hydrogen and oxygen, whose properties he will investigate in more detail in the next lecture.
LINKS TO OTHER VIDEOS IN THIS SERIES
► Lectures
(1/6) Introduction to Michael Faraday’s Chemical History of a Candle
• Introduction: The Chem...
(2/6) Lecture One: A Candle: Sources of its Flame
• Lecture One: The Chemi...
(3/6) Lecture Two: Brightness of the Flame
• Lecture Two: The Chemi...
(4/6) Lecture Three: Products of Combustion
• Lecture Three: The Che...
(5/6) Lecture Four: The Nature of the Atmosphere
• Lecture Four: The Chem...
(6/6) Lecture Five: Respiration & its Analogy to the Burning of a Candle
• Lecture Five: The Chem...
► Bonus Videos: Lectures with Commentary
Lecture One: A Candle: Sources of its Flame (Commentary version)
• Commentary Lecture One...
Lecture Two: Brightness of the Flame (Commentary version)
• Commentary Lecture Two...
Lecture Three: Products of Combustion (Commentary version)
• Commentary Lecture Thr...
Lecture Four: The Nature of the Atmosphere (Commentary version)
• Commentary Lecture Fou...
Lecture Five: Respiration & its Analogy to the Burning of a Candle (Commentary version)
• Commentary Lecture Fiv...
►Subscribe now! kzbin.info_...
►Become an advanced viewer of Engineer Guy videos - help evaluate early drafts
www.engineerguy.com/preview
COMPANION BOOK DETAILS
The companion book is available as an ebook, in paperback and hardcover - and for free as a PDF. Details on all versions are at www.engineerguy.com/faraday
Michael Faraday’s The Chemical History of a Candle
with Guides to the Lectures, Teaching Guides & Student Activities
Bill Hammack & Don DeCoste
190 pages | 5 x 8 | 14 illustrations
Hardcover (Casebound) | ISBN 978-0-9838661-8-0 | $24.95
Paper| ISBN 978-1-945441-00-4| $11.99
eBook | ISBN 978-0-9839661-9-7 | $3.99
Audience: 01 - General Trade
Subjects
SCI013000 SCIENCE / Chemistry / General
SCI028000 SCIENCE / Experiments & Projects
SCI000000 SCIENCE / General
EDU029030 EDUCATION / Teaching Methods & Materials / Science & Technology
This book introduces modern readers to Michael Faraday’s great nineteenth-century lectures on The Chemical History of a Candle. This companion to the KZbin series contains supplemental material to help readers appreciate Faraday’s key insight that “there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of science than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.” Through a careful examination of a burning candle, Faraday’s lectures introduce readers to the concepts of mass, density, heat conduction, capillary action, and convection currents. They demonstrate the difference between chemical and physical processes, such as melting, vaporization, incandescence, and all types of combustion. And the lectures reveal the properties of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, including their relative masses and the makeup of the atmosphere. The lectures wrap up with a grand, and startling, analogy: by understanding the chemical behavior of a candle the reader can grasp the basics of respiration. To help readers understand Faraday’s key points this book has an “Essential Background” section that explains in modern terms how a candle works, introductory guides for each lecture written in contemporary language, and seven student activities with teaching guides.
Author Bios
Bill Hammack is a Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois-Urbana, where he focuses on educating the public about engineering and science. He is the creator and host of the popular KZbin channel engineerguyvideo.
Don DeCoste is a Specialist in Education in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois-Urbana, where he teaches freshmen and pre-service high school chemistry teachers. He is the co-author of four chemistry textbooks.

[@chaumas]

These videos are really great. One thing I might have mentioned in the commentary is that what Faraday says about potassium's reaction with water is oversimplified. It doesn't react with water because it finds oxygen (the oxygen it finds is stuck pretty hard onto a hydrogen), but because it finds a hydroxide ion. IIRC both reactions are ionic, so it kind of works out as an analogy, but the big difference is that the resulting potassium hydroxide is a strong base. I only mention it because the chemistry in that part seemed really off and I had to look it up

[@ib9rt]

Consider, however, that any hydroxide ions encountered by the potassium have already dissociated from a water molecule and are in a stable state. They have no further reaction to undergo. It is the water molecules encountered by the potassium that are torn apart in a redox reaction (the potassium reduces the water, the water oxidizes the potassium). Moreover it is the oxygen in the water molecule that gives it the character of an oxidizing agent, and it is therefore fair to say that the reaction occurs because the potassium finds oxygen in the water.

[@ryan_custard13]

So many videos to catch up on!

[@trippedbreaker]

Would that enclosure really have been made of plexiglas (brittle acrylic plastic) rather than polycarbonate (extremely tough, impact resistant) material? I suppose it might be enough to reliably hold up at that thickness, but if it's intended to contain a bursting iron ball, acrylic seems like a strange choice.

[@65gtotrips]

Isn’t there at least some Carbon Monoxide also thrown off by the incomplete combustion of the candle as well ? I.E. like an oil or gas furnace, generator, or oven ?

[@TheriusT]

Why did you recoil when placed the coke bottle in the ice? Could it be dangerous?

[@mangamaster03]

No, he knew what it was going to do, it just makes a loud noise, and you never know exactly when the can will collapse. I've done it myself before. It's a lot of fun.

[@detroitdiesel-vu3ig]

These guy. It sounds like I'm being educated on Engineering by Alec Baldwin; not a bad thing.

[@habeang304]

First like

[@Theowest]

xDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

[@65gtotrips]

This man needs to explain the major benefits of carbon dioxide to the climate change zealots.