This afternoon I attended a block party. One of the ‘games’ was to estimate the number of M&M Chocolate-Covered Peanuts in a jar. Not jelly beans, I know. But I like M&M Chocolate-Covered Peanuts better, anyway.

I’ve played these games before and never came close.

This time, the ‘hostess’ held up the jar, and I immediately saw something I never saw before. Instead of getting lost in the whole jar, I saw only the rectangular area of M&M Chocolate-Covered Peanuts directly facing me.

I made a calculated guess of how many M&Ms were in that rectangle. Didn’t count each one, just eyeballed it and came up with ...

25

Then I guessed how many rectangles made up the circumference of the jar ...

6

Then I multiplied 25 x 6 =

150

Then I took a wild stab at the interior volume of the jar ... the part I couldn’t see. I guessed ...

½ of surface area = 75

Therefore total M&Ms in the jar should equal ...

150 + 75 = 225

Since my lucky number is 2, I made my official guess ...

222

The correct answer was ...

237

I didn’t win because someone else guessed 230.

Next time I’ll estimate that the center of the jar is halfway between 2/3 and ½ of the jar, or halfway between 75 and 100, which equals ...

87.5

Therefore, 150 + 87.5 equals ...

237.5

Think everybody, including me, will be freaked out?

What this has to do with real estate, I really don’t know, but one day I’ll figured that out, too!