why cant you light a candle in a spaceship?

Answer 1

You can, but it will burn poorly and go out quickly, for a couple of reasons.

1. When astronauts are going to be doing a spacewalk, the shuttle is kept at a lower air pressure than we would find at sea level on Earth. This means there is less oxygen available to support a flame.

2. On Earth, heat rises. The hot carbon dioxide waste product of burning goes up, and fresh air is drawn in to take its place. This keeps a continuous supply of oxygen coming in to support the combustion. In freefall, hot gases don't rise, so eventually a flame will burn all of the oxygen in its immediate area and go out, just as if you'd lit it in a closed jar on Earth.

That's the theory, anyway. In reality, there are always small air currents from people moving around and from the air conditioning system (which scrubs out CO2 and returns fresh O2), so a candle won't go out immediately. It won't burn indefinitely, though.

Answer 2

If you provide any form of ignition on a USA space craft you will cause an explosion because they use pure Oxygen for the atmosphere. On a Russian space craft you can light a candle because they use compressed air, ( this means the oxygen content is the same as on Earth). And it has been done by a Russian astronaut.

Oh and as someone said the flame would float away because of a lack of gravity, NOPE the flame is a product of the burning gasses and can't go anywhere but where it is produced, I.E. the candle wick.

Answer 3

You can. And, it's been done. But the flame will not stay lit. On Earth, the heat of the flame draws oxygen in from the bottom to burn the fuel; The flame rises, because it's lighter than the surrounding air, allowing a path for the oxygen to reach the fuel source. In space, there's no gravity - so the weight of the flame and the surrounding air are identical - the flame is spherical shaped, and is pock-marked where air is attempting to reach the fuel to keep the flame lit. Eventually, it burns very dim, but it continues to burn, because if the flame is too big, oxygen can't reach the fuel to maintain the reaction.

I think the first 'candle' (it was inside a test chamber) was aboard Skylab, in 1973. (I remember seeing the footage of the event after it happened.)

Answer 4

The flame is disoriented. A flame depends upon the structure of the candle, wick and melted wax to burn. It also depends on gravity to induce fuel and air flow along the lit wick. In zero G's, the flame cannot burn "up" with the normal flow of heated gasses, drawing new freshly heated fuel and air with it. The currents of combustible gasses and air do not follow the standard pattern and the candle goes out.

Answer 5

Assuming there is no gravity or manual ventilation by fans, the candle flame uses up all the oxygen nearby but there is no updraught to remove the carbon dioxide and let more oxygen flow past the flame. The CO2 extinguishes the flame.

Answer 6

because the flame will use up all the necessary oxygen to survive in the spaceship

Answer 7

Probably beacuse there is no oxygen on a spaceship and a fire needs oxygen to live just like we do.

Answer 8

No gravity to cause hot combustion gas to rise by convection,so flame is smothered by carbon dioxide.
A small fan would cure the problem.

Answer 9

Ships of any kind and fire do not mix, you want to so the results of fire and a space craft Google Apollo 1 and see what happen
d to those brave souls.

Answer 10

Because of the absence of gravity a flame would not know where to go.