Candle+Wax

=Creation of the Perfect Crayon= Abstract:

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 * **THE PERFECT CRAYON. Dani Andrusko & Carley Berthiaume.** The purpose for conducting this lab is to discover how wax type of any color affected the writability and hardness of a coloring crayon in order to determine how to create the perfect crayon suitable for a child under the age of ten. It was predicted that soy wax, using red or blue pigment, would make the best crayon because it would be easy for a young child to write with due to its soft properties. Three types of waxes were used in this experiment: paraffin, beeswax, soy wax, and a commercial color crayon was used as the control. Paraffin is the hardest wax because it has the longest chain of hydrocarbons in its structure so it has a greater amount of dipole intermolecular forces holding it together and gives it the highest melting point. Beeswax was the second hardest followed by soy because their carbon chains were shorter than paraffin’s giving them less intermolecular forces to hold them together and a lower melting point. Although paraffin and beeswax could support the most weight, they required a large amount of pressure to produce a minimal color streak. The hypothesis was proven correct because both blue and red soy wax could support a sufficient amount of weight while only needing minimum pressure to produce a color streak. This experiment could be improved by adding oil to each of the waxes to further ease the ability to write. ||

//Results & Data Summary figures: // Figure 1: Physical Appearance

OBSERVATIONS: Both paraffin and beeswax are impossible to break by hand in their solid state. The coloring crayon snaps easily.
 * ** Wax Type ** || ** Description ** ||
 * Crayon || A lot of pigment in its coloration, easy to break ||
 * Paraffin || Clear, very hard to cut or break ||
 * Soy || Clear, already in small chunks, hard ||
 * Beeswax || Tan color, hard to cut or break, strong smell ||

Figure 2: Melting Point


 * ** Wax Type ** || ** Melting Point (Celsius) ** || ** Time Taken to Melt (s) ** ||
 * Crayon || 70 || 40 ||
 * Paraffin || 64 || 60 ||
 * Soy || 50 || 55 ||
 * Beeswax || 70 || 55 ||

OBSERVATIONS: Paraffin should have the highest melting point because it has the strongest intermolecular forces, but it appears the coloring crayon and beeswax do. But, paraffin does takes the longest to begin melting followed by soy and beeswax. Figure 3


 * ** Wax Type ** || ** Weight Supported with red pigment (lb) ** ||
 * Crayon || 10 ||
 * Paraffin || 40 ||
 * Soy || 11 ||
 * Beeswax || 25 ||

OBSERVATIONS: As prior research indicates, paraffin is indeed the hardest followed by beeswax and then soy. These findings are consistent with the laws of intermolecular forces because paraffin does have the longest chains of hydrocarbons and should be able to support the most weight before it breaks. Figure 4


 * ** Wax Type ** || ** Weight Supported with blue pigment (lb) ** ||
 * Crayon || 10 ||
 * Paraffin || 35 ||
 * Soy || 12 ||
 * Beeswax || 15 ||

OBSERVATIONS: It was hypothesized that different pigments wouldn’t yield different results but this isn’t consistent with the chart. It is possible that different sizes of wax was used in this experiment than in the previous one with red pigment. For paraffin and beeswax, the weight supported was decreased. Figure 5


 * ** Wax Type ** || ** How easy/hard it is the write with red pigment ** ||
 * Crayon || Small amount of pressure, leaves dark color streak ||
 * Paraffin || Extreme amount of pressure, little to no color streak ||
 * Soy || Moderate pressure, medium dark color streak ||
 * Beeswax || Extreme amount of pressure, little to no color streak ||

OBSERVATIONS: Paraffin and beeswax needed an extreme amount of pressure to produce even the lightest of streak, at least more than a young child could apply… Soy wax was the only wax that actually yielded a relatively dark color streak besides the actual crayon of course. Figure 6


 * ** Wax Type ** || ** How easy/hard it is the write with blue pigment ** ||
 * Crayon || Small amount of pressure, leaves dark color streak ||
 * Paraffin || Extreme amount of pressure, little to no color streak ||
 * Soy || Moderate pressure, medium dark color streak ||
 * Beeswax || Extreme amount of pressure, little to no color streak ||

OBSERVATIONS: Results are the same as Figure 6. Pigment did not affect this test. RESULTS SUMMARY: It has been concluded that soy wax would be the best wax to create a suitable coloring crayon for a kid because it can support a decent amount of weight (Figure 3 & 4), more than the control coloring crayon, and was the only crayon created, besides the control, that could produce a color streak with a moderate to small amount of pressure resembling a young child (Figure 5 & 6). The tests proved that paraffin and beeswax are too hard to make a suitable color crayon for little kids. They are too hard for little kids to be able to enjoy coloring with (Figure 5 & 6). Their high melting points (Figure 2) due to large dipole intermolecular forces and large amount of weight they can support (3 & 4) also prove the waxes are extremely hard. It can also be concluded pigment had no effect on each of the tests. Figure of Lab Apparatus:



wax. (2011). In //Encyclopædia Britannica//. Retrieved from [] paraffin wax. (2011). In //Encyclopædia Britannica//. Retrieved from []