Final answer:
Blue whales can weigh as much as 200,000 pounds. The weight comparisons between marine animals and polar bears are useful for understanding the scale of these animals and requires knowledge of converting tons to pounds.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question is regarding the weight of blue whales relative to the options provided. Blue whales are the largest animals on Earth. An adult blue whale can weigh as much as 200,000 pounds, significantly more than both a polar bear, which weighs about 1,000 pounds, and a humpback whale, which on average weighs about 40 tons (or 80,000 pounds).
Therefore, the correct answer to the student's question about how much blue whales can weigh is (b) 200,000 lbs. It's important to understand these weights in context; for instance, to compare the weight of a humpback whale to polar bears, you convert the whale's weight into pounds and then divide by the weight of a polar bear, discovering it would take about 80 polar bears to equal the weight of one humpback whale.