The cosmic math joke nobody asked for! When water drops merge, they follow boring old Euclidean geometry—two 1mm³ drops combine to make one 2mm³ drop. But black holes? They're space-time rebels operating on pure surface area logic. Two black holes with 10,000 km² surface areas merge to create one with just 20,000 km² (assuming no gravitational wave energy escapes). This happens because black holes are essentially 2D information smeared on a spherical surface—what physicists call the holographic principle. It's like nature saying "volume is so mainstream, I'm going with surface area instead." The universe's way of keeping cosmic accountants perpetually confused!