My granddaughter asked a question from her maths homework, as follows:
The square root of a number is 3. What is the square of the number? I said 81 but the book shows the answer as 3 x 3 = 9. I haven't mis-read the question, so what have I not understood?
You changed the question.
The number is 9
The square root of that number is 3
The square of that number is 81
However maybe the second question was what is the square of the answer/number you have just given; in order to ensure the pupil knows it goes the other way and ends up at the number you first thought of.
I think it would be useful as an entry on ambiguity in life
( rather than this is what comes from an English teacher reaching maff)
It is a bit early for this - but in O and A level texts apparently there are deliberate mistakes ( one or two) to prevent plagiarism
( actually detect or confirm plagiarism)
oddly as I ramble to avoid the racist threads
in accounts last night - we had: " blah blah from the capital account. Expenses were paid from that account...."
and the candidate was expected to realise that expenses CAN'T be paid from a capital account so it has to be another account referred to.... " and we all went like: do the question setters speak English ?
[ we also get double negatives and implied double negatives]
It took me a while to get used to the idea that in French and Russian (and perhaps in other languages with which I am not familiar) double negatives are an essential part of the language. I ain't going nowhere makes perfect sense to a Russian, I ain't going anywhere would leave him bewildered.