Cecil said:
>>“Many people find the fact that burning produces water surprising. They shouldn’t. The great British scientist Michael Faraday used to do an annual lecture on the “chemical history of a candle” in which he would hold a flask full of ice above a candle flame. After a short time the flask would be covered with droplets of water, most of it newly manufactured by the burning candle.”<<
Ah, but was it really the burning that produced the water? Even without the candle flame, wouldn’t the droplets of water have been produced anyway by condensation, which as anyone who has enjoyed a frosty beverage outdoors or owns an indoor toilet knows, water droplets will form on the surface of anything quite cold even at room temperature? Even if Faraday was indeed correct, would it likewise be true that if we were to set a bag of our hair on fire, the hair would produce droplets of plain ol’ H2O because it was burning?
LINK TO COLUMN: Where does the candle wax go? - The Straight Dope