Question

One glucosamine pill has a mass of 1.14g. How much will a pharmacist weigh out to fill a prescription that calls for 500 pills.
I got 570 g
B) how many glucosamine pills are there in 88kg?
Not sure how to solve this

Answer 1

for both scenarios, you need a use a ratio.

we know, \(\sf 1.14g=~1pill\rightarrow \dfrac{1.14~g}{1~pill}\)

\(\sf \dfrac{1.14~g}{1~pill}=\dfrac{x}{500~pills}\)

solve for x, the mass of 500 pills.


b) \(\sf \dfrac{1.14~g}{1~pill}=\dfrac{88~kg}{x}\)

now before we go ahead and solve this, notice that the units of mass are different. We need to convert 88 kg to g before carrying on.

\(\sf 1~kg=1000~g \rightarrow \dfrac{1000~g}{1~kg}\)

\(\sf 88~\cancel{kg}* \dfrac{1000~g}{1~\cancel{kg}}=88000~g\)

note the units cancel out.

so, it looks like \(\sf \dfrac{1.14~g}{1~pill}=\dfrac{88000~g}{x}\)

solve for x, the number of pills.