Blow out a candle from a distance

Task stats

Points

15

Disquals

0

• Ante tapes together a series of pipes and connects them to the vacuum on the other side of the room. However, he forgets that the task states that the points are based on how far away from the candle he is, and makes himself the one to hold the other end of his pipe system up next to the candle. He therefore takes 9 minutes 40 seconds to extinguish the flame from a distance of just 3cm, and earns one point.
• Ana hooks up the vacuum before quickly realising it will not work, as it sucks rather than blowing. She then proceeds to link some pipes together at the end of the vacuum hose, and tries to smother the candle out with the end of the pipes. She accidentally knocks the candle off the table, where it does burn out. She takes 2 minutes 28 seconds to extinguish the flame from a distance of 5m 24cm, and earns three points.
• Enio realises that the task does not dictate that the candle has to remain on the table. He begins to throw a roll of tape at the candle from across the room. After several misses, he throws one of the larger pipes at the candle, knocking it to the ground and putting out the flame. He takes 2 minutes 26 to extinguish the flame from a distance of 8m 92 cm. Enio earns just two points, despite having extinguished the flame from the longest distance, as instructed in the task. When confronted, Luka and Ivan declare that it's more about the technique.
• Lidija first attempts to make a system to snuff out the candle by connecting a cone to the end of a long hosepipe. She then discovers the vacuum cleaner and attaches a long pipe to the end. She accidentally knocks the candle over, but ends up extinguishing the flame anyway. Lidija's time is not given, but she extinguishes the flame from a distance of 5m 62cm, earning four points.
• Igor tapes a hosepipe to the side of the candle. Unfortunately, he does not realise that because he taped the hosepipe parallel against the candle, that any air that travels through it will blow directly upwards, and not across the flame. Nevertheless, he attempts to extinguish the flame by blowing into the hosepipe, then by connecting a foot-pump, and then by attaching it to the vacuum cleaner. In the final few seconds of the task, Igor runs up to the candle and blows it out manually. Igor therefore uses his entire time to extinguish the flame from a distance of 54cm. He earns five points, because Ivan wants to acknowledge Igor's Sisyphean effort.