The team at Macrofying recently shared incredible footage and photography showing the smoke of a candle after blowing it out. The pictures and videos were shared on Instagram with the following caption:
Smoke is unburned particles of carbon released when the hydrocarbon chain of candle wax breaks down. When the candle is alight, most of the carbon gets burned to carbon dioxide, but some escapes. If you hold a plate above a candle flame, you’ll see the carbon accumulate as a sooty smear.
When the flame goes out, the glowing wick has enough heat left to break up the wax molecules for a while, but not enough to burn the carbon, so you get a trail of smoke until it cools. I captured this smoke by using a extrem high shutter speed and slow motion.
For those wondering why you couldn’t see the flame itself before it was blown out, Macrofying added: “the lamp I use is so powerful that it is brighter than the light from the candle flame. I have to use such a bright light to compensate for the high shutter speed I’m using.”
