Question

A prescription for amoxicillin comes in an oral suspension that is 150 mg /5mL. A patient is prescribed 500mg every six hours.

How many teaspoons?

Express your answer using one significant figure.

How many teaspoons per day?

Express your answer as an integer.

Answer 1

1 US Teaspoon = 5 ml

In one dosage, the patient has to take 150mg and that is equal to 5mL

Using the unitary method, 1mg will be equal to 5/150 mL

Therefore 500mg will be equal to

Now, since 5 ml is 1 teaspoon

16.66 mL will be equal to

Rounding this off to 1 significant figure answer will be  3 teaspoons

2. There are 24 hours in a day

In six-hour, the patient has to take 3.33 teaspoons, so in 1 hour he will take 3.33/6 = 0.555 teaspoons

In 24 hours he will have to take 24*0.555 teaspoons=13.32 teaspoons

Rounding off to nearest integer we get In a day = 13 teaspoons

{See since we rounded off the answer in the calculation in step 1, it does not mean we will discard the actual data. When calculating the second part I have used the actual data}

Answer:

In one dosage: 3tsp

Per day: 13 tsp