"Magic" Candles

Has anyone ever tricked you with those "magic" candles that re-light after you blow them out? Did you every wonder how they work?

Remember that candles actually burn vaporized wax. After you blow the flame out, the vapor cools and is no longer hot enough to re-light the wick. However, what if you added something to the wick that will burst into flame at the temperature of the cooling wax? That added something will catch fire and re-light the wax vapor! It turns out that magnesium metal does the trick (quite literally). When a magic candle re-lights, you can often see little bits of sputtering, burning magnesium being given off. So now you know, and those candles don't seem so "magic" any more!