• @[email protected]
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      2811 months ago

      You understand that the reason we make candles out of wax is because it’s a solid fuel, right? The same reason candles work is the reason wax paper isn’t oven safe.

      • @[email protected]
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        1711 months ago

        A lot of people think that the wick itself is the fuel. I only recently realized that it’s “wicking” up melted wax, and the wax itself is the fuel.

          • @[email protected]
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            2011 months ago

            It breaks my heart that examining and understanding the world around you is the kind of thing people disparage

        • @[email protected]
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          811 months ago

          Yeah, I recently learned that most people are totally misunderstanding candles when Hank Green had to do a whole series on “where does the wax go?” on tiktok. Blew my mind that it wasn’t obvious to everyone.

          • @[email protected]
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            611 months ago

            If someone had asked me “what percentage of people know how candles work?” I would probably have answered something like “95% of those over the age of 5”. This is very disconcerting. Not that candles are terribly important, but just the lack of reasoning.

            • @zalgotext
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              411 months ago

              Is it really that weird to not fully understand how candles work? They’re rarely used nowadays if you have electricity, and it’s not exactly the most intuitive - I mean wax melts, and reveals more wick, and the wick is the thing you set fire to, so I don’t think it’s that weird to think the wick is burning.

              • @[email protected]
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                111 months ago

                I would assume people goong “ok, so the wick burns but what is the purpose of the wax? Oh it’s the fuel duh”

      • Gamey
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        211 months ago

        I play with candle wax since I am four years old and it’s always shocking to me how little many people understand about the world around them!