Math 1050

Drug Filtering Lab

Name: Huy (Tommy) Vo

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
Write down the actual model for this data set:

AMOUNT OF
DRUG
IN HER BLOOD
(MG)
1000
750
563
422
317
238
179
134
101
76
57
43
32
24
18
14
11
8

2.) Use a graphing utility to make a plot of the above data. Label axes appropriately. Copy and
paste your graph into this document.

3.) Based on your graph, what can you say about the data? For example, is there a pattern? Is
there constant slope?
It curves and gets closer and closer to zero. The pattern is that every 4 hours, the amount in her
blood goes down by 25%. There is no constant slope, it is not a straight line, it curves instead.
4.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood after 2 days?
There are approximately 32mg of the drug in Dots blood.

5.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood after 5 days?
There is approximately .18 mg of the drug in Dots blood after 5 days.
6.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood 30 hours after she took the drug? Explain
your reasoning.
Dot has approximately 117 mg of the drug in her blood, instead of reducing by 25% every 4 hours, I
reduced by 12.5% every 2 hours.
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.
The exact results from my model was 128 hours (5.333 days). I used my model to calculate down to
at least 0.1mg of the drug.

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?
Since it is assumed that the amount of drug decreases by 25% every 4 hours, the amount will
continue to get smaller and smaller, but it will never be completely removed from her system.

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
A(t ) A0 ekt
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(-.0719t)

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
40
44
48
52
56
60
64
68

AMOUNT OF
DRUG
IN HER BLOOD
(MG)
1000
750
563
422
317
237
178
134
100
75
56
42
32
24
18
13
10
8

10.)
Interpret the parameters of this exponential model in terms of the context of the
problem.
The Y axis represents the amount (in milligrams) of the drug, the X axis is the time
11.)
Compare your values with the estimated values in the model. How close were they?
Why might they be different?
They were very close, the differences in the amount (although very minute) came from the models of
calculating them.

12.)
Use a graphing utility to graph the original data along with a graph of the model on the
same set of axes. Copy and paste graph into this document.

13.)
Were you expecting a horizontal asymptote? What might that mean in the context of
the problem?
Yes, in the context of this problem using this model, it means the drug will never be filtered out
completely.

14.)

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

Approximately 295 mg is in her system 17 hours after taking the drug.

15.)
Using your model, how long will it take for exactly one-half of the drug to remain in her
system?
It will take 9.64 hours for exactly 500mg to remain.
16.)

Using this model, how long will it take for 0.1 mg of the drug to remain in her system?

It will take 128 hours. (5.333 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 it is accurate to an extent, but there are many other factors to consider when predicting
amounts of drug in a persons blood.

18.)

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

Weight, food intake, water intake, and activity level should be used for a more realistic model.

19.)
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.
This project changed the way I think math can be applied to the real world. Math can be applied to
many things to very accurately determine specific results. This project, while not completely accurate,
is a great general reference. I think applying math to the real world is great for problems with little or
no other variables because it can give you very precise answers. For problems with many variables to
consider like this one, I think it should only be used as a general reference.