Miquelle Maes
Math 1020 Project
Suppose 37.5% and 8.5% solutions are available. Our goal is to make 1500 mL of a
12.5%
solution and verify that the strength is correct.
1. Interpret the percent strength of 37.5%
 In this problem, we are asked to determine and interpret the percent strength of
37.5%. When determining percent strength, it means that when there is x% of
the strength of a drug, there are x amount of grams of pure drug in every 100
milliliters. Therefore there are 37.5 grams of pure drug in 100 mL’s of solution.
2. Interpret the percent strength of 8.5%
 Interpreting this percent strength is the same as question 1. There are 8.5 grams
of pure drug in 100 mL’s of solution.
3. Interpret the percent strength of 12.5%
 This is the same as the previous questions. There are 12.5 grams of pure drug in
100 mL’s of solution.
4. Describe how you mix the 37.5% and 8.5% solutions to get 1,500 mL of a 12.5% solution.
Round to the nearest tenth.
𝑁−𝑆

In this problem we will be using the formula: 𝐹 = 𝑉 ×


F stands for the Final results
V stands for the volume. In this equation, the volume we will be using is 1,500
mL.
N stands for the needed strength. The needed strength in this equation is 12.5%.
B stands for the bigger amount of solution we will be using to get the mixed
strength. The big amount being used is 37.5%.
S stands for the smaller amount of solution we will be using to get the mixed
strength. In this equation, the smaller amount of solution is 8.5%.
Now, it’s time to plug in the numbers to their correct places in the equation and
compute the equation correctly.




F= 1,500 ×
12.5−8.5
37.5−8.5
𝐵−𝑆
~207 𝑚𝐿
We first put 207 mL of the 37.5% solution. After putting that in, we add
the 8.5% solution until the final volume is 1,500mL. The final result is
1,500mL of 12.5% solution.
5. How many mL of the 37.5% solution do you use? Round to the nearest tenth.
 We use 207mL of the 37.5% solution to get the final results.
6. How many grams of pure drug are there in the above volume? Round to the nearest
tenth.
 When we are interpreting the percent strength of the above solution, we get
37.5 grams of pure drug are in 100mL’s of solution, or
37.5 𝑔
. To determine how
100 𝑚𝐿
37.5 𝑔
many grams of pure drug are in 207mL, we say: 207𝑚𝐿
100𝑚𝐿
The mL’s cancel
out, and we multiply 37.5g by 207, and then divide by 100. The result of this is,
77.6g. There are 77.6 grams of pure drug in 207mL of solution.
7. How many mL of the 8.5% solution do you use? Round to the nearest tenth.
 To figure out how many mL’s of the 8.5% solution we use, we subtract the
amount of mL’s we used for the 37.5% solution, which was 207mL, from the final
volume, which was 1,500mL. The result of this is we used 1,293mL of the 8.5%
solution.
8. How many grams of pure drug are there in the above volume? Round to the nearest
tenth.
 When we are interpreting the percent strength of the above solution, we get 8.5
grams of pure drug are in 100mL of solution. We are trying to figure out how
many grams of this drug are in 1,293mL of solution. To determine this we say:
1,293𝑚𝐿
8.5𝑔
100𝑚𝐿
The mL’s cancel out, and we multiply 8.5 by 1,293 and divide
this by 100. The result of this is, 109.9 grams of pure drug are in 1,293mL of
solution.
9. Find the sum of the number of grams of pure drug from the 37.5% and 8.5% solutions
found in problems 6 and 8.
 The sum of the number of grams of pure drug from these solutions is
109.9+77.6=187.5 grams of pure drug in both solutions.
10. Compute directly the number of grams of pure drug there are in 1,500 mL of the 12.5%
solution.
 When we are interpreting the percent strength of the above solution, we get
12.5 grams of pure drug are in 100mL of solution. We then set up the problem
like this: 1,500𝑚𝐿
12.5𝑔
100𝑚𝐿
The mL cancel out and our results are: 187.5 grams
of pure drug in 1,500mL solution.
Medical Math
I believe medical math is a lot more important that just having a passing grade in the
class. I know a lot of people will try to get a passing grade in a lot of other classes, but when a
class such as this class is going to affect your career if you paid attention or not is very vital. In
medical math, we learn a lot of things that will help not only people going into nursing, but
going into pharmacology, biology, medical, and pretty much any medical profession there is out
there. Some of the things for example that are taught in this class are flow rates, conversions,
the amount of drugs in a solution, and if a certain amount of drug is an overdose for a patient,
plus many more. Learning about flow rates are good especially for nurses when they are
programming their medication pumps to administer medications to a patient. They can know
how much they need to infuse the medication for and at what rate it needs to be going into the
patient, at a safe rate. If someone just faked their way through this class and they were going
into nursing, they could create a lot of harm to the patient all because they simply didn’t pay
attention in a class. Learning conversions is a good thing not only for nurses, but for people that
work in the pharmacy and also for doctors. It is good for them to know how to convert certain
units of measurement to provide the correct care for their patients. Determining if a drug is an
overdose is what I consider one of the most important things we have learned in this class. If a
nurse does not know how to determine how much medication to give to a patient and
accidently causes an overdose, it can create a life of struggle, knowing that they caused
something bad for a patient. It could even result in death for someone, which could have easily
been avoided if they would have known how to correctly do their job. All these reasons, and
many more, are reasons why it is very important to actually pay attention in the class and not
just want to get a passing grade.