An engineer, a mathematician, and a physicist are staying in three adjoining cabins at a decrepit old motel

An engineer, a mathematician, and a physicist are staying in three adjoining
cabins at a decrepit old motel.
First the engineer's coffee maker catches fire on the bathroom vanity. He
smells the smoke, wakes up, unplugs it, throws it out the window, and goes
back to sleep.
Later that night the physicist smells smoke too. He wakes up and sees that
a cigarette butt has set the trash can on fire. He says to himself, "Hmm.
How does one put out a fire? One can reduce the temperature of the fuel
below the flash point, isolate the burning material from oxygen, or both.
This could be accomplished by applying water." So he picks up the trash
can, puts it in the shower stall, turns on the water, and, when the fire is
out, goes back to sleep.
The mathematician, of course, has been watching all this out the window.
So later, when he finds that his pipe ashes have set the bedsheet on fire,
he is not in the least taken aback. He immediately sees that the problem
reduces to one that has already been solved and goes back to sleep.