The total resistance in the circuit shown ( attached pic ) between terminal 1 and terminal 2 is ______ ohms.

A. 1 1/2
B. 6
C. 9
D. 15

The answer is given as B but I can't seem to figure out why.

The parallel 6 ohms resistors add up to 3 ohms and the 5 and 3 ohms resistors then add up to 8 ohms total. So how is the answer 6 ohms?

 

You are correct. The book is wrong.

Write to the publisher of the book so they can correct it.

 

You are correct -- and kudos to you for not just accepting the book's answer as gospel. Like JoeJester said, the book is wrong and you should notify the publisher so that it can be corrected in the next edition and included in the errata for this edition.

Authors frequently make minor changes to problems from edition to edition and sometimes don't get the answers updated. My guess is that if you were to look in the prior edition, you might find that the 5 ohm resistor was a 3 ohm resistor or that the two 6 ohm resistors were 2 ohm resistors. If I ever write a text book that has multiple choice problems, I would probably tend to change problems so that one of the other choices becomes the correct choice. That way you can get a feel for which students are just copying off of old work or an old solutions manual.