Math 1010

Drug Filtering Lab

Name: Kiera Taylor

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
72
76
80
84
88
92

AMOUNT OF
DRUG
IN HER BLOOD
(MG)
1000
750
562.5
421.875
316.406
237.304
177.977
133.482
100.111
75.083
56.312
42.233
31.674
23.755
17.816
13.361
10.020
7.514
5.635
4.226
3.169
2.376
1.781
1.335

96
100
104
108
112
116
120
124
128

1.001
0.750
0.562
0.421
0.315
0.236
0.177
0.132
0.098

What might a model for this data look like?

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 slope is not constant or moving at a patterned rate. As you can see towards the bottom it
keeps getting smaller and smaller and evening out closer to a straight line as time passes.

4.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood after 2 days?
About 31.674 of the drug remains in her blood.

5.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood after 5 days?
About the same amount as before 31.674

6.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood 30 hours after she took the drug? Explain
your reasoning.
If she has 133.482 mg in her blood at 28 hours, and loses about 25% in 4 hours, then she will
lose 12.5% in two hours. If you take 12.5% from 133.482 mg then you are left with 16.685 mg,
if you subtract this from 133.482 mg, then you are left with 166.796

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.
You have to extend the chart to figure this out if you check it you can see it began to come
out negative after 128 hours or 32 days.

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?
No, because if you continue to extend the hours and use the same math it will never reach
zero there will always be an amount you can take away.

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^-0.079

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
562.593
421.978
316.510
237.402
178.066
133.561
100.178
75.140
56.359
42.273
31.707
23.782
17.838
13.379
10.035

10.)
Interpret the parameters of this exponential model in terms of the context of the
problem.
The model above is a representation of the amount of time it takes the drug to leave her
blood.
11.)
Compare your values with the estimated values in the model. How close were they?
Why might they be different?
They are actually very similar. They are a few digits off on some of the numbers and this
model seems a bit more accurate.
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, because its an exponential equation problem! A common characteristic of these problems is
that they never reach zero which means the drug in Dots system will never entirely leave.

14.)

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

15.)
Using your model, how long will it take for exactly one-half of the drug to remain in her
system?
T= 9.604 hours.

16.)

Using this model, how long will it take for 0.1 mg of the drug to remain in her system?
T= 28.062 hours.

17.)
Do you think the continuous decay model is more accurate for predicting the amount of
drug in her blood? Why? Or why not?
Yes, because we are already using an equation that sort of predicts the math for you. With the
second model you dont have to worry about significant digits as much as you would with the
first model.

18.)

What other factors should be considered in coming up with a more realistic model?
Probably a lot to with her motor functions, how much she ate, drank, slept, and if she
was taking other medications.

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.
Yeah, I mean math is useful in a lot of everyday things. Its so important with the medications we take,
with the way we engineer and build things, with basically everything. It makes sense as too why its
so important for it to be a required class in college. At some point youre probably going to use math
for things in real life, even if its as simple as budgeting or paying your bills.