If a worker can process 76 items every hour, how many items can they process in 3 hours and 45 minutes?

To determine how many items a worker can process in 3 hours and 45 minutes, it's important to first convert the total time into hours. There are 60 minutes in an hour, so 45 minutes can be expressed as 0.75 hours (since 45 minutes is 3/4 of an hour).

Now, the total time is:

3 hours + 0.75 hours = 3.75 hours.

Next, to find the total number of items processed, multiply the processing rate (76 items per hour) by the total time in hours (3.75 hours):

76 items/hour × 3.75 hours = 285 items.

This calculation shows that over the entire duration, the worker processes a total of 285 items, making this option the correct answer. The conversion of time and multiplication by the processing rate are key steps to arrive at this result.