New Product Idea and Book Giveaway -- Who Wants it? (N95 straw)

In summary, a professional summarizer observed the commercial "Human Kindness" and noticed the dad helping a son blow out his candle, and how bad the tradition of blowing out candles on birthday cakes is from a health perspective. They proposed that a section of the supermarket sell straws with N95 filters in them, to make the tradition germ-free and still fun for the birthday person. There is a design challenge to incorporating germ protection into a straw or other device to make blowing out birthday cake candles germ-free and still fun. One possible solution is to have a filter on the mouth of the straw.
  • #36
Oh my goodness. The professional entry seems to be a lock, but the amateur entries are so close... Ack!
 
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  • #37
Stephenk53 said:
Perhaps it has a fully closed end but has a mini fan that when you blow on creates a tiny electric charge that then activates a relay that allows a battery to power a larger fan to blow out the candle
:woot:E-gads. I've been had.
I will have to like that one.:-p
 
  • #38
I'll take a shot at it, first to get more air through the filter you need more surface area, so put the flat filter at an angle to inside of the straw, you can make the angle less steep the longer the straw is :-)
 
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  • #39
256bits said:
E-gads.
Here is another wild idea!: perhaps create a "Candle Blowing Suit", with all the gadgets attached to it ... . You get in ... you blow the candles (for your birthday) - everyone's thus sanitarily safe! (especially if you're sick with the flu or something) - then you come out of the suit and continue with the party! ...
Now that's an idea for a tech product too!
 
  • #40
Okay, contest is closed. Great stuff. The winners will be announced shortly. :biggrin:
 
  • #41
Congratulations to our two book winners! @Greg Bernhardt will be contacting each of you to verify your mailing address. :smile:

Professional -- @BillTre https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...y-who-wants-it-n95-straw.940872/#post-5951181

Hobbyist -- @OmCheeto https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...wants-it-n95-straw.940872/page-2#post-5953691

I like all the creative alternative ideas that folks came up with. My initial idea was to widen the straw for a bit to accommodate a section with the N95 filter in it, and then neck it back down to get the air velocity back up again. But I like the variations with angled filter material, and a longer curvy straw with some absorbent material distributed along the inner wall.

The breath-powered air pumps are pretty clever, and fairly practical.

Thanks for a fun thread. Where's the cake? :biggrin:
 
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  • #42
Yippie!

ps. I did finally finish reading the previous book sent out: "What's it like in Space", just yesterday morning.
10/10 stars!
 
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  • #43
I was thinking of getting this book, so, NICE!
 
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  • #44
Congrats to the winners! It was indeed a fun thread, and thanks to the OP too!
When should we expect to get the product running and be able to buy it? (Funding will be needed, as usual ...)
 
  • #45
Stavros Kiri said:
Here is another wild idea!: perhaps create a "Candle Blowing Suit", with all the gadgets attached to it ... . You get in ... you blow the candles (for your birthday) - everyone's thus sanitarily safe! (especially if you're sick with the flu or something) - then you come out of the suit and continue with the party! ...
Now that's an idea for a tech product too!
Absolutely. An added dress up phase for the celebrators which would be fun.

congrats winners!
 
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