Heating up a lantern with a tealight candle

Abstract

This paper provides physics principles and a method to heating up a lantern with a tealight candle, so it reaches 2.5 m within the shortest time. The experiments aimed to determine optimal parameters in filling paper lanterns with hot air and the ideal shape of lanterns that would travel most quickly in a vertical direction. Hot air from burning a 28-wick candle was directed through a heat transfer system to fill the lanterns. The small ellipsoid lantern required the shortest time. This problem is suitable as a platform for STEM education approach on topics of convection, buoyancy and drag force.