1. A student strained her knee in an intramural volleyball game, and her doctor has prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug to reduce the swelling. She is to take two 220-mg tablets every 8 hours for 10 days. Her kidneys eliminate 60% of this drug from her body every 8 hours. Assume she faithfully takes the correct dosage at the prescribed regular intervals. The interactive figure below contains the initial dose (440), the elimination rate (0.60), and the recurring dose (440). Click on Calculate to generate values for the amount of medicine in her body just after taking each dose of medicine
   The interactive figure calculates the amount of drug in the system just after taking a dose of medicine. You could also ask how much drug is in the body just before taking each dose. These values would be exactly 440 mg less than the values calculated just after taking each dose.
   
   1. How much of the drug is in her system after 10 days, just after she takes her last dose of medicine? If she continued to take the drug for a year, how much of the drug would be in her system just after she took her last dose?
   2. Does the amount of medicine in the body change faster around the fifth interval (about 40 hours after the initial dose) or around the twenty-fifth interval? How can you tell? What happens to the change in the amount of medicine in the body as time progresses?
   3. Explain, in mathematical terms and in terms of body metabolism, why the long-term amount of medicine in the body is reasonable.
2. Vary the initial dose, the elimination rate, and the recurring dose. What do you notice?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

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