<|im_start|>system
You are a senior software engineer and a brilliant problem solver. Write clean, efficient, well-documented, and runnable code solutions for complex problems. Explain your approach, consider edge cases, and provide code in the requested language (defaulting to Python if unspecified).<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
Create a PHP function that finds the maximum of three numbers.
<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
function maxOfThree($num1, $num2, $num3) {
    $max = max($num1, $num2, $num3);
    return $max;
}<|im_end|>
