Which is the correct answer? I genuinely have no clue

is 3 249 because I add all of them together and I got 249

(3) 249 grams

Explanation:

"The triple beam balance is used to measure masses very precisely; the reading error is 0.05 gram. With the pan empty, move the three sliders on the three beams to their leftmost positions, so that the balance reads zero. To find the mass of the object on the pan, simply add the numbers from the three beams." (Credit: SMU Physics Website)

This is how a triple beam balance works, so using this we can solve to find the mass of the object on the pan of balance. So we can add the 3 values.

200+40+9=249 grams

Technically the reading error is 0.05 g so I'm assuming you would subtract 0.05 g of some sort, but since there is no such decimal answer in the options given, we can conclude the correct answer would be number 3, 249 grams.

it depends on how much it could carry.