In logic, cascading two NOT gates gives you the same answer as the input. Cascading three NOT gates produces the same result as a single NOT gate. With this in mind, how’s your vocabulary?

Ask somebody for a big word, and they might quote Mary Poppins’ nonsense word:

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

The word has no meaning in itself; it expresses surprise and pleasure. But it does have an interesting (and contentious) history.

A word that is long that does means something is

antidisestablishmentarianism

A lot of us have heard this word because it is often cited as an example of a very long word. but few know what it means. I didn’t until I looked it up.

Historically, it meant the view that the British government should continue to support the established church, the Church of England. To understand the word, you have to work through two “no’s” (two negatives).   The first is “dis-“ and the second is “anti-“. A vivisection of the word is given at the end of this article.

Unraveling a number of negatives in a sentence can be difficult. For this week’s Micro Softy, I’m asking that you simplify statements with multiple negatives. These types of statements can be very useful for political obfuscation or insulting someone without them knowing it. Thus it is useful to be able to unravel them as well.

Here’s an example. In a debate, your opponent does a mic drop after a bold claim. You pause, rub your chin and say:

 “Hmmm. That’s not unmeaningless.”

Are you admitting his point? Or are you calling it meaningless?

Here’s another. At the end of the debate, you shake hands with your opponent and say:

“It’s obvious that you don’t know a lot more than I don’t know.”  

Is this an admission of inferior knowledge, or is it an insult to your opponent’s intelligence?

Here’s a list of 17 more phrases with multiple negatives. See if you can unravel them. We’ll give you our answers next Micro Softy Monday.

1. “I’m not unwilling to say that this isn’t entirely unreasonable.”
2. “It’s not impossible that he didn’t misunderstand the instructions.”
3. “I’m not unconvinced that this isn’t a bad idea.”
4. “It’s not unlikely that they didn’t fail to notice the problem.”
5. “I cannot say that I don’t disagree with your conclusion.”
6. “It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say this is not insignificant.”
7. “I’m not sure we can’t avoid not making changes.”
8. “It’s not implausible that he isn’t innocent.”
9. “I wouldn’t deny that this isn’t without serious consequences.”
10. “I’m not unwilling to believe that he didn’t fail to do nothing.”
11. “It’s not impossible that we can’t not reconsider this.”
12. “I wouldn’t say it’s not unlikely that she isn’t mistaken.”
13. “I cannot deny that I am not unconcerned about this.”
14. “It’s not unreasonable to think they didn’t not understand.”
15. “I’m not convinced that this can’t fail to cause problems.”
16. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say he isn’t not responsible.”
17. “It wouldn’t be wrong to say this isn’t not important.”

If you get them all right, you don’t know a lot more than I don’t know. Or do you?

Solution to Micro Softy 89:   Flipping Gold Coins

Here’s last week’s Micro Softy and its solution:

Image generated with ChatGPT

A number of gold coins are spread on a table, some heads-up and some tails-up. You are told exactly how many show heads. A sheet covers the coins before you enter, and you must keep your hands under the sheet, unable to distinguish heads from tails by touch or any other means. Your task is to divide the coins into two groups such that each group has the same number of heads. You may flip any coin while doing so. If you have done it right, after you finish and the sheet is removed, both groups are revealed to contain exactly the same number of heads.

Here’s how to do it: If you are told there are ten heads, then form the new group of coins by flipping over ten coins. The number of heads in both piles will be the same. This works no matter how many heads there are. If there are twenty heads, flip over twenty coins to form the new group.

Hard to believe? Give it a try.

For nerds like me, here is the math:

Let the total number of heads on the table be H (known to you).

• Create a second pile by selecting any H coins (you cannot tell heads from tails, but that does not matter).
• Suppose within those H selected coins there are x heads and H – x tails.
• Then in the remaining pile (the coins you did not move), the number of heads is H – x, because you started with H total heads and removed x of them.
• Now flip all H coins in the second pile:

• The x heads become tails.
• The H – x tails become heads.
• So the second pile ends with H – x heads.
• Therefore both piles have exactly H – x heads.

Very nice!

Vivisection of the Word: Antidisestablishmentarianism 

 As promised at the beginning of this article, here is a breakdown of word antidisestablishmentarianism

• Establish means to set something up or make it official.
• Establish + ment = establishment, which means something that has been officially set up. In British history, this often meant the Church of England (Anglican Church).
• Now add the first negative: dis- means to undo or remove.
  So disestablishment means removing the Church’s official status.
• Add -arian, which means a person who supports an idea. So a disestablishmentarian is someone who supports removing the Church’s official status.
• Now add the second negative: anti- means against.
  An antidisestablishmentarian is someone who is against removing the Church’s official status.
• Finally, add -ism, which means a belief or movement.
  So antidisestablishmentarianism is the belief that the Church should not lose its official connection to the state.

The Monday Micro Softy is a weekly feature of Mind Matters News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:

Monday Micro Softy 88:  Flipping Gold Coins. Computer programmers must be good at math. The solution to this week’s Micro Softy uses math — but you don’t need to know the math to impress your friends. The answer to Micro Softy 87 depends on understanding which number a given sequence of the code represents.

Image Credit: Aleksandr Ugorenkov - Adobe Stock

Monday Microsofty 87: Are you as good a detective as you think? Here’s a test from the world of codebreaking To solve last week’s puzzle, look up the definition of “calorie.” Are we using the word to mean the same thing? You can find puzzles 77 through 86 here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 76: The Smoking Gun explains a computer scientist or engineer, a law enforcement officer often relies on abductive reasoning to crack a case, so with this in mind, you will have to crack last week’s puzzle. You can find puzzles 55 through 75 here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 55: “It happens every spring.” Baseball, that is. Here’s a puzzle that takes in baseball’s summer. To solve last week’s puzzle, you don’t need to know the distance. Check the problem again for the number you do need to know. You can find puzzles 51 through 54 here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 50: Cutting through the cornbread. How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts? You can guess the answer to Microsofty 49 if you try the test question yourself at home, using a small mirror. Links to Microsofties 46 through 49 are here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedalling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each. You will find links here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You will also find links to Micro Softies 30 through 39 and their answers here as well.

Image Credit: Тарас Нагирняк - Adobe Stock

Monday Micro Softy 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 22 through 29.

Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? Here you will find links to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!