Maria has to spend 5 1/2 hours to finish her community service program in a community health clinic. Last week, she was able to spend 3 3/4 hours. Which equation can be used to determine the number of hours, h, that Maria still needs to spend to complete her service program?(1 point)

Question

Maria has to spend 5 1/2 hours to finish her community service program in a community health clinic. Last week, she was able to spend 3 3/4 hours. Which equation can be used to determine the number of hours, h, that Maria still needs to spend to complete her service program?(1 point)
Responses

h − 3 3/4 = 5 1/2
    h minus 3 and three-fourths equals 5 and one-half
    h + 5 1/2 =  3 3/4
    h plus 5 and one-half equals 3 and three-fourths
    h − 5 1/2 =  3 3/4
    h minus 5 and one-half equals 3 and three-fourths
    h + 3 3/4 = 5 1/2

GPT-4 Turbo · Answer

To determine how many hours, h, Maria still needs to spend to complete her service program, we need to subtract the hours she has already completed from the total hours required. Maria has to complete a total of 5 1/2 hours and has already spent 3 3/4 hours. The correct equation to represent the remaining hours is:

h + 3 3/4 = 5 1/2

So the last option is incorrect because that's the reverse of what we want. The first three options can be evaluated:

1. h − 3 3/4 = 5 1/2: This equation is incorrect because it implies that h is the total number of hours, and we subtract the hours she already worked, which would suggest that she worked more than the total required hours, which does not make sense.

2. h + 5 1/2 = 3 3/4: This equation is incorrect because it implies that if we add the total hours required to Maria's remaining hours, we get the hours she has already completed, which is not logical.

3. h − 5 1/2 = 3 3/4: This equation is also incorrect because it represents a scenario where Maria has worked more hours than required and has a surplus.

The correct equation would be the remaining hours h that Maria needs to work plus the hours she has already worked equals the total hours required:

h + 3 3/4 = 5 1/2

However, this equation indicates that we are adding the remaining hours to the hours already worked to get the total, which doesn't directly solve for h. To find h directly, we need to rearrange the terms:

h = 5 1/2 - 3 3/4

This correctly represents that the remaining hours h are equal to the total required hours minus the hours already completed. So, while it looks like there's a bit of confusion in the provided equations, "h = 5 1/2 - 3 3/4" is the proper equation to determine the number of hours Maria still needs to spend to complete her service program.