Drug Filtering Lab

Name: Jordan Nemelka

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

AMOUNT OF
DRUG

THE DRUG (HR)

IN HER BLOOD
(MG)

1000

750

563

12

421

16

316

20

237

24

178

28

133

32

100

36

75

40

56

44

42

48

32

52

23

56

17

60

14

64

11

68

What might a model for this data look like?

X= 1000(.75)^t/4

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

2.) Based on your graph, what can you say about the data? For example, is there a
pattern? Is there constant slope?
There is a constant decrease of the slope by 25% every 4 hours. Though that exact number is
not constant, the amount of the drug in her blood system decreases by a fixed rate. But, once the
blood system is clear of the drug, the slope stays at 0.
3.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood after 2 days?
33MG
4.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood after 5 days?

0MG
5.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood 30 hours after she took the drug?
Explain your reasoning.
117MG. If her saturation percentage every 4 hours is 25% less, then every 2 hours, her
saturation level would be 12.5% less. 12.5% taken out of 134, is 117.
6.) 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 172 Hours, or 7 days, for the drug to be 0.00MG or less. At 140 hours, the drug would be
0.04MG, which is less than 0.1MG, which is just short of 6 days.

7.) 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 problem is that 25% of a the MG remaining after 4 hours keeps getting smaller, but even 25% of
0.00000000001 still gives a number that is over 0. The decrease is less and less after a long time. But it
never really goes away. There is an infinite number of 0s between 0 and 1. The line will never cross the
x axis.

8.) 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^(-0.07t)

Now use that model to fill in the following table:

TIME SINCE
TAKING

AMOUNT OF
DRUG

THE DRUG (HR)

IN HER BLOOD
(MG)

1000

750

563

12

422

16

316

20

237

24

178

28

133

32

100

36

75

40

56

44

42

48

32

52

24

56

18

60

13

64

10

68

9.) Interpret the parameters of this exponential model in terms of the context of the
problem.

Rate of decay (k)= -0.0719 or 7.2%. The decrease of saturation becomes less and less as the drug
leaves her system. By solving for K, I can find a constant decay rate based off the time.

10.)
Compare your values with the estimated values in the model. How close were
they? Why might they be different?

The two charts are almost exactly the same. They might be a little bit different because I used
different formulas to solve the problems, but the rate of decay should be relatively the same.

11.)
Use a graphing utility to graph the original data along with a graph of the model
on the same set of axes.

12.)
Were you expecting a horizontal asymptote? What might that mean in the
context of the problem?
I was because an asymptote never hits the x axis. These numbers will not reach 0 because
each number decreases by a small percentage each time and not a fixed number.

13.)
drug?
296MG

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

14.)
Using your model, how long will it take for exactly one-half of the drug to remain
in her system?
5-6 hours

15.)
system?

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

day 5

16.)
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 there isnt a fixed stopping point. It makes more sense that the body would
slowly and continuously break down the drug that is in her system.

17.)
model?

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

Each body is different and there are multiple factors that will affect how an individuals body
absorbs the drug. I think factors should be considered like the persons past drug history, allergies,
how they respond to narcotics, and the amount of time it took for different kinds of drugs to leave their
system.

18.)
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 really changed the way I look at math and how its applied in daily life, especially in
health care. I work in health care and I participate with surgery. In order to give the best care to my
patients, the rest of the staff and myself need to take into consideration the patients medical history.
We need to know which medications to give and in order to determine that we need to know how their
body reacts to different drugs, chemicals, etc. The people who work in the hospital labs help us to
figure this all out. They are the ones who use these equations, or similar ones to figure out the
information we need about a specific person. Our computers have equations built into them to help us
find the perfect ratio for the patient. Surgeons will also often look at charts and graphs to determine a
diagnosis, or a course of treatment. With math, we have been able to drastically improve our health
care system, and through math it will continue to grow and new inventions will help heal people more
and more.