Math 1010

Drug Filtering Lab

Name:_Kylie Neff_________

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
What might a model for this data look like?

AMOUNT OF
DRUG
IN HER BLOOD
(MG)
1000
750
562.5
421.875
316.406
237.305
177.979
133.484
100.113
75.085
56.314
42.235
31.676
23.757
17.818
13.363
10.023
7.517

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?
It starts at 1000mg and keeps getting closer to zero but will never hit zero (asymptote at zero).
4.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood after 2 days?
31.676 mg
5.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood after 5 days?
0.179 mg
6.) How many milligrams of the drug are in Dots blood 30 hours after she took the drug? Explain
your reasoning.
113 mg, At 28 hrs its 133.484 mg and at 32 hrs its 100.113 and I noticed that at the beginning
it decays faster so a number in the middle.
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.

6 days, at 6 days the amount of drugs in Dots body is 0.032 mg which is less than 0.1 mg
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, there is an asymptote at 0. She would fail her test
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 e kt
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:

ln
k=

A(t )
A0
t

Model: A(t) =

.072 t

A0 e

Now use that model to fill in the following table:

TIME SINCE

AMOUNT OF

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

DRUG
IN HER BLOOD
(MG)
1000
750
562.143
421.473
316.004
236.928
177.639
133.187
99.859
74.870
56.135
42.088
31.556
23.659
17.739
13.299
9.972
7.476

10.)
Interpret the parameters of this exponential model in terms of the context of the
problem.
This model will tell us the amount of drugs left in her system after X number of hours after
taking so many drugs.
11.)
Compare your values with the estimated values in the model. How close were they?
Why might they be different?
Only about 1/10 of a mg off. They are different because I rounded the rate of decay (K)

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?
At X=0, She will always have some amount of the drug in her system.
14.)

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

294.052 mg
15.)
Using your model, how long will it take for exactly one-half of the drug to remain in her
system?
T=9.627 hours
16.)

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

127.921 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, the actual model would be more accurate over all but for predicting the amount of drugs in
her system at any given time the continuous decay model would be best.

18.)

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

How many significant digits you use for K (the rate of decay).
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 did actually show me how applicable math can be in your life. This also
showed me what ln/log does because before this project I had no idea what they really did but
just went with it. It makes math a lot easier and more fun when I know what I am doing and
how this pertains to my daily life and also what I might want to do in the future as a career.