Field note / Financial analysis
Correct operands do not establish the correct formula.
What breaks
Retain both source values, the operator, denominator, sign, units and rounding policy. With Q2 = 100 and Q3 = 120, growth against Q2 is 20%; dividing by Q3 yields a different measure.
Challenge the fix
A zero or missing baseline cannot be silently converted to ordinary percentage growth.
Worked example · fictional records
Calculation C-3 · revenue 120 · cost 90
Evidence to inspect
Both values are sourced. The answer reports a 25% markup using the margin formula.
What would establish the fix
Margin is (120 − 90) / 120 = 25%; markup is (120 − 90) / 90 ≈ 33.3%. Bind the requested metric.
Counterexample
Correct citations cannot compensate for the wrong denominator.
This example explains the check. It does not report a customer result or a completed production run.
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How the lesson shapes Tensile
Use reproducible arithmetic checks alongside source and semantic checks. Review an expected answer independently of the candidate.
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Anonymized engineering lesson. Example records are reconstructed for this preview; this is not a published customer case study or a measured result.
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