Everyone knows how to blow out a candle, seen by clicking your mouse on the photograph at the left below. The real question is how many ways there are to blow out the candle in the situation shown in the photographs below. The pictures at the center and the right below show the setup.
Shown below are five views of the candle, including a large can, along with five possible ways to blow out the candle, represented by putting your mouth where the arrows are and blowing sharply in a horizontal direction, shown by the arrow. In cases (c), (d), and (e) the blowing is in a plane, perpendicular to the axis of the can, containing the candle!
| (a) |  |
(b) |  |
(c) |  |
(d) |  |
(e) |  |
Which of the above will actually blow out the candle?
Click here for Answer #255 after September 11, 2006.
