system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If the liquid wax is what burns in a candle, why doesn't a pool of liquid wax go up in flames? Why only the wick?
gpt
It's not the liquid wax that burns, it's the vapors. The liquid gets drawn up the wick, and vaporized when it reaches the flame proper, and is burned then (as a general rule, most everyday things that burn do so as a gas: it's the only way to get a sufficient mixture with the oxygen it reacts with while burning).