Question

Does a lit candle provide an example of chemical change?

Answer 1

Chemical change is characterized by the formation of new substances, and the making and breaking of strong chemical bonds......

Explanation:

So when we light a candle, typically we combust paraffin, `C_31H_64`, an alkane. It may be that we combust more volatile alkanes that are entrained in the wax....

The complete combustion reaction of any alkane is given by.....

`"Alkane + dioxygen "rarr" carbon dioxide and water"`

The combustion of candle wax would never be complete; there would be incomplete combustion to give `C`, and (small quantities of) `CO`.

And thus burning a candle gives 2 new substances, and breaks strong `C-H` (and some `C-C`) bonds.......This is chemical change by definition.