Is there a way to determine if a question has been modified?

Several times I have come across an answer that does not seem to match the question. The most recent was an answer by Tony B (who is usually pretty good at this) where his answer involved an "given " equation starting #26y=# but the (current) version of the question starts #6y=#

1 Answer
Mar 28, 2016

Here's my take on this.

Explanation:

The wording of a question can only be modified by regular contributors before an answer is posted.

Once the question gets at least one answer, only heroes or members of the team can modify its wording or the topic in which it sits.

So my guess would be that Tony answered the question by going with whatever wording was written at the time. What you're describing only makes sense if the question was changed after Tony posted his answer.

In this case, I would say that this is right up my alley. I can't say for sure yet, but I think I remember changing the wording of a question answered by Tony after speaking with him about it.

Could you maybe provide a link to the actual question so that I can confirm this?

So, to sum this up, regular contributors can change the wording of a question before an answer gets posted. Once that happens, they can no longer do so, which makes sense because we can't have people running around messing with questions that have already been answered.