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Mathematics For Pharmacy Section

A simple test for Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical science students to assess their Algebraic fluency in handling mathematical tasks.

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Nickson Drabe
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129 views

Mathematics For Pharmacy Section

A simple test for Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical science students to assess their Algebraic fluency in handling mathematical tasks.

Uploaded by

Nickson Drabe
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SECTION B

(MATHEMATICS FOR PHARMACY)


1. One of the most crucial mathematical skills that a pharmacist has to be ‘fluent’ with,
is basic algebra as it enables the pharmacist to express real-world problems in their
symbolic format such that they can be solved using mere mathematical manipulations.
The knowledge of logarithms, indices and other algebraic skills becomes necessary in
many cases when we are handling our technical tasks.

a) What do we mean by a logarithm? You may use mathematical expressions or


numbers to illustrate your understanding of the concept (1 mark)

b) Solve for x in log ( x2 ¿−5)−log x=log 4 ¿ (4 marks)

c) The efficiency of a disinfectant depends on the concentration at which it is used


for disinfection. Measuring the exposure times (t1, t2) necessary to kill the same
number of microbes at two different concentrations (C1, C2) allows us to calculate
the concentration exponent η of the given disinfectant by,
η η
C 1 t 1=C 2 t 2
Re-write the formula above expressing η in terms of t1, t2, C1, and C2 (4 marks)

d) Apart from the case above, state one scenario where the pharmacist will find the
knowledge of indices or logarithms useful (1 mark)

2. We encounter situations characterized by changing variables very often in pharmacy.


These include decline of drug levels in plasma, reduction in activity of
radiopharmaceuticals over time among others. The calculus is a very useful tool to us
while dealing with such cases and pharmacists need some basic knowledge of
calculus to comfortably handle them.

a) Use the power rule of differentiation to obtain the derivatives of the following
expressions with respect to their independent variables (2 marks each)
3 2
i) f ( x )=a x +b x +cx +d where a, b, c and d are constants
ii) C ( t )=C 0 e−kt where C 0 and k are constants

b) The decay of a radiopharmaceutical over time is described by the equation below,


−λt
A=A 0 e
Where A0 is the initial activity of the radiopharmaceutical while A is the
remaining activity after time t has elapsed and λ the radioactive decay constant.

i) Re-write the expression in a linear format with time t being the


independent variable (4 marks)
ii) Sketch a graph for the linear equation you obtained in b (i) above (2
marks)

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