To make a salad, a caterer uses 3 carrots for every 4 tomatoes. If she uses 36 tomatoes, how many carrots should she use? She should use ____ carrots.

To find out how many carrots the caterer should use, we can set up a ratio based on the information given. The ratio of carrots to tomatoes is 3:4.

1. Identify the ratio: For every 4 tomatoes, there are 3 carrots.
2. Set up the proportion: If there are 36 tomatoes, we can set up the equation:

[

frac{3 text{ carrots}}{4 text{ tomatoes}} = frac{x text{ carrots}}{36 text{ tomatoes}}

]
3. Cross-multiply:

[

3 times 36 = 4 times x

]

[

108 = 4x

]
4. Solve for x:

[

x = frac{108}{4} = 27

]

Thus, she should use 27 carrots.