Math 1010

Drug Filtering Lab

Name: Alyssa Bloom

The purpose of this lab is to come up with a continuous model for exponential decay.
Dot assumes that her kidneys can filter out 25% of a drug in her blood every 4 hours. She knows
that she will need to take a drug test for an interview in a couple of days. She plans on taking one
1000-milligram dose of the drug to help manage her pain.
1.) Fill in the table showing the amount of the drug in your blood as a function of time and round
each value to the nearest milligram. The first two data points are already completed.

TIME SINCE
TAKING
THE DRUG (HR)
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
32
36
40
44
48
52
56
60
64
68

AMOUNT OF
DRUG
IN HER BLOOD
(MG)
1000
750
597
461
356
275
212
164
127
98
76
58
45
35
27
21
16
12

What might a model for this data look like?

It will have a steep slope starting at the y axis and the slow will decrease as it gets closer to the x-axis.

2.) Use a graphing utility to make a plot of the above data. Label axes appropriately.

3.) Based on your graph, what can you say about the data? For example, is there a pattern? Is
there constant slope? The amount of drug in Dots blood reduce quickly the first few
hours and then slows down after about 24 hrs.
4.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood after 2 days?
45 MG
5.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood after 5 days?
.43 MG
6.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood 30 hours after she took the drug? Explain
your reasoning. 144 mg of the drug in Dots blood after 30 hours. I used the formula y =a(1-b)^x
you solve 1000(1-.062)^30 .

7.) A blood test is able to detect the presence of this drug if there is at least 0.1 mg in a persons
blood. How many days will it take before the test will come back negative? Explain your

answer. It would take 144 hours or 6 days to get the drug below .1 mg. In 6 days there
would be .092 mg in her blood.
8.) Will the drug ever be completely removed from her system? Explain your reasoning. What
complications might arise from having excess amounts in her system?
The drug will always be in her system only just micro amounts. This is because when
you graph the equation it will never tough the x axis just skim barely above it.

9.) Since there is a constant rate of decay, a continuous exponential decay model can be used to
determine how much drug is in her system at any time.
Exponential Decay Model
Where A(t) is amount of drug in blood at time t in hours,
A0 is the initial amount of drug, and
k is the rate of decay (it will be a negative number)
You will have to find the actual value of k that works for this model. Write down the exponential
decay model for the amount of drug in Dots blood as a function of time:

Model: A(t) = 1000e ^ (-0.0719 X t)

Now use that model to fill in the following table:

TIME SINCE
TAKING
THE DRUG (HR)
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
32
36

AMOUNT OF
DRUG
IN HER BLOOD
(MG)
1000
750
563
422
317
237
178
134
100
75

40
44
48
52
56
60
64
68

56
42
32
24
18
13
10
8

10.)
Interpret the parameters of this exponential model in terms of the context of the
problem. This model shows you how long it will take until Dot can pass a drug test.

11.)
Compare your values with the estimated values in the model. How close were they?
Why might they be different? They were pretty close the second model had less drugs in
her system after s shorter amount of time. This is due to the different equation that was
used.

12.)
Use a graphing utility to graph the original data along with a graph of the model on the
same set of axes.

13.)
Were you expecting a horizontal asymptote? What might that mean in the context of
the problem? I was expecting it to be horizontal because as the time went on the drug
amount in her system should keep decreasing. Although, it wont be completely out of
her system.
14.)

Using your model, how much drug is in her system 17 hours after taking the drug?
334 MG

15.)
Using your model, how long will it take for exactly one-half of the drug to remain in her
system?
10 Hours and 45 Min.
16.)
Using this model, how long will it take for 0.1 mg of the drug to remain in her system?
96 hours or 4 days

17.)
Do you think the continuous decay model is more accurate for predicting the amount of
drug in her blood? Why? Or why not?
I think that the most accurate is the continuous model because the drug should
metabolize at the same continuous rate.
18.)

What other factors should be considered in coming up with a more realistic model?

The age, weight, fat and muscle mass of the individual.

Reflective writing: Did this project change the way you think about how math can be
applied to the real world? Write one paragraph stating what ideas changed and why. If this
project did not change the way you think, write how this project gave further evidence to
support your existing opinion about applying math. Be specific.

19.)

I thought this project helped me to see a new way math could be applied to life. I
have never thought about using a math equation to find out how long a drug will stay
in your system. I think that this could be useful in the medical field as well to decide
how often patients can take certain drugs safely. I liked doing this project and having
a visual graph to look at and examine the trends of the graph. It was hard at first to
calculate what the x and y coordinates were but once I got the hang of it the project
seemed fairly easy. It good to see how math applies to the real world because a lot of
the time the things we learn in math I feel have no applicable real world scenarios.