Final answer:
To find out how many people could ride the Ferris wheel in 3 hours, divide the total time in minutes by the time taken by one cycle. Then multiply the number of people in one cycle by the number of cycles. The answer is 600 people.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find out how many people could ride the Ferris wheel in 3 hours, we need to first determine how many cycles the Ferris wheel completes in 3 hours. Since each cycle takes 15 minutes, we divide 3 hours (180 minutes) by 15 minutes, which gives us 12 cycles.
Now, we know that the Ferris wheel can accommodate 50 people in each cycle. So, to find out how many people could ride the Ferris wheel in 3 hours, we multiply 50 by 12, which gives us 600 people.
Therefore, 600 people could ride the Ferris wheel in 3 hours.