Answer:
Depending on how the question may be interpreted, the answer is:
1) 17 cupcakes, or
2) 5 2/3 cupcakes per person
See below.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question "How many cupcakes do they have?" is ambiguous.
- First, do we assume that the cupcakes are all eaten? And are they all eaten equally?
- Second, does the question want to know how many were eaten by each person? Or is it simply asking how many cupcakes do the party-goers have?
If the answer to 2 is that we want to know how many are available, then the answer is 17. It makes no difference if they were eaten equally.
If the answer to 2 is we want to know how many EACH party-goer had eaten, AND the answer to 1 is they are and gone and equally eaten, then:
(17 cupcakes)/(3 people) = 5 2/3 cupcake per person.
