When I say jump...

You know the phrase "When I say Jump.. You Say "___"" and this is when you respond "How High". Well have you ever thought about how that phrase could have two potential purposes.

Typically, if I told someone to "jump" I wouldn't expect them to verbally respond but rather just jump. That is if they were given to listening to me. Therefore, by asking "How High?" could be a stalling technique. They don't really want to jump, so they'll say some smart mouth comment like "how high?" to delay. I mean has anyone ever answered the question. Has anyone when asked "how high" said two inches and then measured to see if they made it.

The second purpose to asking the question could be to clarify the expectations. I'm not really always good at this so maybe why this purpose came after the first. But maybe the person should ask how high to know what they need to do to reach the other person's expectations. It is possible that if they jumped without asking they wouldn't have jumped high enough or could have exceeded the expectations.