Suppose you’re smoking in a place with a gentle breeze. You have the ashtray and you are depositing -logically- the ashes in it. The breeze isn’t strong enough to wipe out the ashes. But when you turn the cigarrette off, pressing it against the bottom of the ashtray, ashes seems to notice that there is a breeze and start to fly out.
Why is this? Am I the only one who had noticed this phenomenon or what?
Just a WAG here but I suspect the presence of your hand when snuffing the cigarette allows the gentle breeze to bounce off your hand and into the ashtray thus scattering the ashes. Without the presence of your hand the breeze is presumably just passing over the top of the ashtray so the ashes aren’t disturbed.
That’s probably the answer, but I thought I’d mention something else. I always found it funny that if you have an ashtray in front of your computer monitor, ashes will magically (well statically) jump right out of the ashtray and stick themselves to the monitor. Although I’ve only noticed this for some monitors, and on others I can’t make it happen if I try.
Thanks Whack-a-Mole, that must be the answer! (How didn’t I see it?). Just a question: what is WAG? (dont know the term, sorry).
Joey P: isn’t that because the static electricity in the monitor screen?