[Rich1]

Almost all of the time the whistle is simply notifying the players to stop playing because the ball is dead, it is not the whistle that makes creates the dead ball. When the violation occurs the ball (not in flight during a try) becomes dead. When the foul occurs the ball (not in flight during a try) becomes dead.

If for some reason your whistle falls out of your mouth or is broken creating a longer than usual delay before you blow the whistle, anything that occurred in the time it took between the violation, foul, time-out request, etc. and the sounding of said whistle would not be allowed to stand (ie. counting a basket after a dribbler steps out of bounds and then makes a basket before the whistle gets blown).

This is why I posed the question - if we accept that the ball is already dead in most instances, what would be the situations where it is the actual blowing of the whistle that causes the dead ball. Most of the time there is not much delay between the act and the whistle so its usually not an issue. But, I do enjoy thinking through these sort of queries to strengthen my knowledge.

And, 5-5-1 and 6-7-9 (and probably a few more) do not seem to match Fundamental #16.