There are a lot of goofy math problems that find their way online.

They are allegedly “simple” problems that were given to kids, but adults can’t figure them out.

One made the round a couple weeks ago.

It was a simple arithmetic problem.

The difficulty was in what they call “order of operations.”

You’re supposed to do multiplication before addition.

If you don’t do things in the right order, you get the wrong answer.

They also have something called the “distributive property.”

For example, if you were a math student, and you saw this: 8(3x+4) then you take the “8” and multiply it by both the “3x” and the “4.”

The “8” gets “distributed” evenly across the “3x+4” expression.

But when the same thing happen in language, it can get confusing.

And if you’re a hypnotist, confusion is pretty fun to play with.

(Unless you forget to take it out of your pocket and wash your pants. Then it gets all over everything…)

Because when the mind is confused, it will grab hold of anything that sounds normal, even if it’s a command to cluck like a chicken.

Sometimes, the distributive property is easy.

I’m going to eat some candy and popcorn.

The “eat” HAS to be applied to both the “candy” and the “popcorn.”

Because otherwise, the popcorn is all by itself without a verb.

And when you leave nouns all alone without verbs, they tend to get lonely and run away.

And since popcorn is better popping than running away (because you were mean and left it all alone without a verb) our kind human minds tend not to treat it that way.

(I know, that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever).

But what if you walk up to candy counter (the one where you were going to get your popcorn and candy from) and said:

“I’d like a large popcorn and coke.”

They person taking your order might understand, but they might not.

They would probably repeat it, to be sure:

“Large popcorn and a large coke?”

Because they assumed the “large” went with both the popcorn and coke.

(Distributive property of adjectives).

But what if you responded:

“Wait, you have cokes in different sizes?”

This would you mean you thought that popcorn came in different sizes, but coke only came in one.

Their brains would need to freeze just for a minute.

They naturally assumed you wanted a “large popcorn” AND a “large coke.”

They just repeated it to make sure.

Now they have to go back a few moves in their mind, so they can try and pace YOUR WORLD where there is ONLY one size coke.

Kind of like if you’re playing chess, (without writing down all your moves) and you realize you’d made a mistake and have to recreate the board from a few moves ago.

Even people that play chess don’t flip flop around in conversations to go back before assumptions were made.

This is just one simple example you can try today.

Go to any fast food place.

“I’ll take a large X and Y.”

Then they verify that you want large X AND large Y.

And you stare at them and ask sincerely, “Whoa! I can get Y in different sizes?”

And watch their face as their brain freezes momentarily.

Of course, the more you practice this, the LONGER you’ll be able to keep them on the edge of “reality.”

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