To find out how many cups of flour are needed for 1 loaf of bread, you can divide the total amount of flour used by the number of loaves.
The baker used \( 3 \frac{1}{2} \) cups of flour, which can be converted to an improper fraction:
\[ 3 \frac{1}{2} = \frac{7}{2} \text{ cups of flour} \]
Now, divide this by the number of loaves (3):
\[ \text{Flour per loaf} = \frac{7/2}{3} = \frac{7}{2} \times \frac{1}{3} = \frac{7}{6} \]
So, the amount of flour needed for 1 loaf is \( \frac{7}{6} \) cups, which is equivalent to \( 1 \frac{1}{6} \) cups.