Question

As a nurse, part of your daily duties is to mix medications in the proper proportions for your patients. For one of your regular patients, you always mix Medication A with Medication B in the same proportion. Last week, your patient's doctor indicated that you should mix 50 milligrams of Medication A with 40 milligrams of Medication B. However this week, the doctor said to only use 16 milligrams of Medication B. How many milligrams of Medication A should be mixed this week? Answer: milligrams Question Help: D Video Read Submit Question

Answer 1

If by last week, your patient's doctor indicated that you should mix 50 milligrams of Medication A with 40 milligrams of Medication B, then;

A:B = 50:40

Using equality postulate, we can say;

50mg of A = 40mg of B

however if this week, the doctor said to only use 16 milligrams of Medication B, in order for us to get the amount of equivalent milligram for medication A, we will also usse the equality postulate say:

x mg of A = 16mg of B (I had to use x since we do not know the dosage of medication A)

Solving both expression to get x:

50mg of A = 40mg of B

x mg of A = 16mg of B

Simply cross multiply since both medications are always mixed in the same proportion:

40 * x = 50 * 16

40x = 800

Divide both sides by 40

40x/40 = 800/40

x = 20

Therefore 20miligram of medication A should be mixed this week