[The SISU kid]

Thanks again FReepers!!!! The packet is WRONG and everyone involved was taking it a face value. She's really a great teacher and super good with the kids she deals with. (it's a alternative/on-line program)

Just wanted to sanity check what I was coming up with as well!

Cheers!

[BenKenobi]

If you ever want to check, plug the answer into the original equation.

6/13 is the correct answer.

[heartwood]

We have found many many errors in the problem sets in math and science textbooks at the high school and college level - advanced physics, calculus, statistics. My chemistry major son has sometimes spent hours trying to get the same answer as the text only to have my mathematician husband take some time and say, yep text is in error.

But with something as simple as this the teacher ought to be confident and capable enough to know right away that the text is in error. If the problem is much harder than it ought to be - maybe there’s an error. If three people working independently get the same different answer, maybe there’s an error.

The publishers keep churning out new texts because it is so lucrative - they’d do better to correct the errors in the old ones. Basic algebra is basic algebra - does not need the text rewritten!