Kitchen Chemistry - Fizz to Put Out Fire

Todays Kitchen Chemistry Experiment was to use fizz to put out fire. To begin we had to stick a birthday candle into a piece of polystyrene. Then we had to get a jar that was about 1/3 filled with water. We placed the candle into the jar and it floated on the water.
Then we carefully lit the candle inside the jar.

Then we stirred 5 heaped teaspoons of baking soda into the water. It changed the water to look cloudy instead of clear.

The final step was to quickly pour in white vinegar and then watch the reaction....

The baking soda and vinegar quickly started to fizz and bubble as we had predicted. Then the candle flickered and went out. It happened so quickly that we had to watch it several times on the video to decide what had happened.

Fire needs oxygen to burn, but carbon dioxide is heavier than oxygen. When the baking soda and vinegar reacted they created carbon dioxide which pushed all of the oxygen up out of the jar. Because there was no oxygen the flame went out.

Watch the video so that you can see for yourself.

Thanks to Megan & Jameisha (photographers) and Caine (Videographer)