Final answer:
Potassium for hypokalemia is typically infused over several hours, which is true. A pebble dropped in water does not create a pulse wave, making the statement false. A saline solution that causes cells to burst is hypotonic, not isotonic.
Step-by-step explanation:
With regard to the medical treatment for hypokalemia (low potassium levels), it is generally true that potassium is infused intravenously over several hours. Intravenous potassium should not be administered rapidly due to the risk of causing cardiac arrhythmia, so statement (a) is true. In a clinical setting, such as an emergency room, if a physician orders an intravenous delivery of 100 mL of 0.5% KCl for a patient with hypokalemia, the medical staff, such as a nurse or an aide, would retrieve a premade IV bag with the correct concentration from the supply to administer to the patient as a slow infusion usually over several hours.
When discussing the phenomenon of a pebble dropped in water, this action creates ripples that are indeed examples of a wave, but not a pulse wave. Pulse waves are single disturbances that move through a medium, hence statement 4 is (a) False.
Regarding the injection of a saline solution, if a patient's red blood cells burst (hemolysis), that suggests the solution was not isotonic but hypotonic, meaning there was a lower concentration of solutes compared to the inside of the cells. This causes water to move into the cells, leading to them bursting. Therefore, the correct answer to statement 23 would be (c) False, the solution was hypotonic.
On the topic of potassium solutions being used for lethal injections, excessive potassium can be dangerous because it disrupts the electrical signaling of the heart, which can lead to fatal arrhythmias. Hence injecting a high concentration of potassium solution directly into a person's bloodstream can be lethal, as seen in methods of capital punishment and euthanasia.