Do coloured candles burn faster than white ones?
I am not 100% sure because I don’t know much about the manufacturing process of candles, but I believe that white candles would burn faster. The coloring that is added to the colored candles is most likely not a good fuel as opposed to the wax of the candle. If that is true, then the coloring would lower the temperature of the flame of the candle because it is not contributing to the combustion reaction, but it is able to absorb energy through its molecular motions and vibrations. If the flame temperature is lowered, the mass consumption rate of the flame is lowered, therefore the colored candles would have a lower flame temperature and a lower mass consumption rate and would thus burn slower than a white candle. In response to another user’s answer, the energy absorbed by a body due to its color is very small copared to the energy of combustion. The increase in the unburned fuel’s temperature has almost no affect on the combustion of a fuel and therefore color of fuel does not play a
