6 students can plant a garden in 5 hours. How many additional students should they get to help if they need to finish the job in 3 hours instead of 5 hours?

The correct answer is 4

Explanation:

One of the ways to solve this mathematical problem is by using the rule of three because there are three pieces of information and one missing information. Below, I show the process step by step:

1. Consider the information provided and the missing information

6 students =  5 hours

     x           =  3  hours

2. Cross multiply to create a simple equation

5x = 18

3. Solve

x = 18 ÷ 5

x = 3.6

This means 3.6 students are required to plant the garden in 3 hours, and this can be rounded as 4 considering people or students cannot be counted using decimal numbers.