This got me at first. Took me a minute. haha

The trick is in the obtuse presentation of the question which is why people will get caught by it - because they aren't thinking of the question but the trick of the question.

It is such a simple problem presented in such a bloated, round-about way. Instead of asking, "If I'm traveling at 80miles per hour to a destination that's 80miles away, how long will it take to arrive?" they ask it in the most asinine way possible with excess information.

>"If I'm traveling from here to a location that is 80miles away and I am driving at 80miles per hour, and I leave here at 2:00pm, what time will I reach my destination?"

A number of things raise flags in a person's head which confuses them if they aren't thinking linearly and instead trying to find some trick to the question.

1. It is being presented by someone clearly intent on having a laugh at their expense, so they want to outsmart the questioner

2. It is an obtusely worded question, so they think of it like a riddle

3. It has numbers and excess information while also being presented like a school quiz question, so they think it's a math riddle

Instead of concentrating on the question itself they concentrate on the intent and perceived trick to the question. They miss the forest for the trees, so to speak.

People who don't answer the question immediately are people who are distracted or may have distracted thinking. They are not people who assess the question but assess everything around the question. The best thing for them to do is to ask for the question to be repeated so they can focus on the question itself.

TL;DR The confusion over the question lies in how it is presented and in the other person's assumption that the question has/is a trick. The trick to the question is that there is no trick.