A cigarette is standing vertically on its butt. You cannot touch it with any object(solids, liquids or gases). That goes for the foundation also. How can you make it drop? Asking another person to do it does not count.

First of all, if you make the restriction that you cannot touch the cigarette or base with anything, including solids, liquids, or gasses, then obviously you are nto allowed to blow on the cigarette.  This means that the cigarette would have to exist in a vacuum, and everybody knows you cannot start a fire in the absence or oxygen, so the official solution won't work.

There's another flaw with the given solution:  Lighting the cigarette with a magnifying glass still has you touching the cigarette with light particles.

Posted by Erik O. on 2005-03-25 15:23:46