Abstract

LEAL, Régis Casimiro; MONTEIRO, Ericson André de Sousa; NASCIMENTO, Thábata Laís de Araújo Barbosa  and  MOITA NETO, José Machado. Exploring the chemical kinetics through the burning of a candle. Educ. quím [online]. 2014, vol.25, n.2, pp.93-96. ISSN 0187-893X.

On a practical point of view, more important than the speed of chemical reactions -traditionally studied in chemical kinetics- is the speed of the processes that includes, besides the chemical reaction, other conditions as the rate of diffusion of reactants to the reaction site. In this work, we explore the simple process of burning a candle in two different environments, and we obtain the kinetics of it. We also assess the influence of the size of the candle on the speed equation. The investigative character helps the understanding of the fundamentals of chemical kinetics and the factors that affect chemical reactions.

Keywords : chemical kinetics; experimentation in teaching; candle; chemical processes.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )