Question

One particular drug is in many non-prescription medications, making it easy to get more than the 4000 milligrams per
day linked to health problems and the recommended 3250-milligram daily maximum. A painkiller contains 450 milligrams
of the drug per pill. A cold medicine contains 350 milligrams of the drug per pill.
a. What is the maximum number of painkiller pills that should be taken in 24 hours?
b. If you take one painkiller pill per hour for five hours, what is the maximum number of cold medicine pills that should
be taken for the remainder of 24 hours?
a.
painkiller pills
(Type a whole number.)
b. cold medicine pills
(Type a whole number.)

Answer 1

Using proportions, the amounts of medicine that can be taken are given as follows:

a. 72 pills.

b. 2 cold pills.

What is a proportion?

A proportion is a fraction of a total amount, and the measures are related using a rule of three. Due to this, relations between variables, either direct(when both increase or both decrease) or inverse proportional(when one increases and the other decreases, or vice versa), can be built to find the desired measures in the problem, or equations to find these measures.

For item a, we have that one painkiller pill has 450 mg, and the recommended maximum daily dosage is of 3250 mg, hence the maximum number of pills is:

3250/45 = 72 pills. (rounded down, as rounding up would result in a higher dosage).

For item b, the dosage of painkillers is:

450 x 5 = 2250 mg.

1000 mg, as 3250 - 2250 = 1000, can be used for the cold pills, hence the maximum number of cold pills is:

1000/350 = 2 cold pills.

More can be learned about proportions at https://brainly.com/question/24372153

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