Combining three equal groups means that we will mainly depend on multiplying the quantity by 3 to get the total
<u><em>Examples are shown below:</em></u> 1- Mrs Nadia teaches three classes. Each class has 25 student. How many students does Mrs Nadia teach in total? <u>In this problem</u> we will be combining three equal groups of students where each group has 25 students, therefore: Total number of students = 3 * 25 = 75 students
2- John has three bags of candies. Each bag contains 10 pieces of candies. How many candies does John has? <u>In this problem</u> we will be combining three equal groups of candies where each group has 10 pieces, therefore: Total number of candies = 3 * 10 = 30 candies
By "three equal groups" I'm going to assume you mean three sets of different things with the same amount in each.
Word problem:
Josh went to the grocery store to buy fruit for smoothies. He bought 6 oranges, 6 apples, and 6 pears. How many fruits did he buy all together? What fraction of all of the fruits are the oranges?