Question

Dr. Gomez orders 0.08 grams of medication for a patient. Each pill contains 0.003 grams of the medicine. How many pills will the patient need?”
Solve using the method shown in the image

Answer 1

It would look a little like this:

\(\large \frac{1}{0.003 g}*0.08 g\)

With each pill (0.003) being divided by the total (0.08). The grams cancel and you get the number of pills.

Answer 2

10.003g∗0.08g

Answer 3

(1pill)/(0.003grams) * 0.08grams

Grams cancel, and you get 0.08pills/0.003, which comes out to be 26.66

Round up, since the patient cannot take 0.66 of a pill. This means 27 pills

Answer 4

yes but what if you should NOT round

Answer 5

You cannot take two thirds of a pill. Therefore, when prescribing the patient's medication, the doctor should not cut them short, and round up to the next value which is 27.

Answer 6

but its not real life, its a math problem

Answer 7

What are you getting at? The useful answer is 27, not implying that your patient should take 26.66666 pills.

Rounding has its applications, this is one of them.

Answer 8

I know but I'm just saying you shouldn't round if the question doesn't say to round.

Answer 9

It is a word problem, which means that it's very likely you are expected to answer with a sensible value. Also, if you really have worries about rounding, then just write 26.666 and state why rounding to 27 makes sense and your teacher will applaud your explanation and give you the point.