Many times while discussing a possible interpretation of a Mishnah, the Gemmorah tries to offer "dead-end solutions" - possible ways of explanations that are knowingly false.
NOTE: I don't ask WHY the Talmud does it, I don't judge it. I also don't ask about valid alternative Halachic solutions (Machlokes).
I'm trying to imagine Moses teaching Yehoshua: "Guess the minimum Succah height? You might say three Tefahim just like Channukah candles? No, it's wrong. You might say one Amah is sufficient for a person? You're wrong again. You might say 3 Amos, like a Mikve - you're wrong" etc. It doesn't make sense to me. I assume the passing of the oral law was pretty much straightforward - a Rabbi tells his students what he knows, so Moses told Yehoshua - "the minimum height is exactly 10 Tefochim, no less and no more."
It appears that this method is specific for the Babylonian Talmud, I don't see it being used in Midrashic literature for example. I presume here that the methods of learning are also traditional just as its content.
Question: what's the source for learning by intentionally misleading a learner offering him dead-end solutions?
