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!
Talk about hours and hours of figuring something out reminds me of college. We had a Russian prof that was THE expert in electromagnetic theory. We didn’t have a text book - it was all taken from his presentations. Which were almost entirely oral.
At the end of various sections we would have to write an essay on whatever it was we had learned, with how it applies, what it means, how to calculate, etc.
In putting together one essay I realized that I did not have a very good understanding on the difference between “edge” lines and “H” lines. So I went through my notes and tried to figure it out - I recall putting things in columns under the appropriate columns of “Edge” and “H”.
Working late into the evenings and much knashing of teeth and pulling of hair I thought I had it finally figured out; in spite of the overlaps in the columns. Proudly handed in my essay (8 to 10 pages I imagine?). The teacher’s assistant handed it back the next day and chuckled. “You and half the class came up with similar essays. However - there is no such thing as “edge” lines - that was just him slipping in and out of his pronounciation of “H” lines. You have until Friday to fix it.”
AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
With my kids in grade school and Junior High, if the question seems oddly worded (lots of word problems nowadays, and I think this math guys are often lousy at English) I will have my kids explain what they think the problem means first to “correct” the error, and then solve the problem based on their assumption rather than pulling their hair out!