The patient's weight is 100 kg. You are to give 5 mg/kg of cough medicine. How many mg of cough medicine should you give? Show all work using dimensional analysis

Answer 1

To calculate how many mg of cough medicine should be given, we will use dimensional analysis.

The given information is:
- The patient's weight is 100 kg
- The dosage is 5 mg per kg

We are trying to find out how many mg of cough medicine should be given.

We can set up the conversion factors as follows:

1 kg = 1000 g (since there are 1000 grams in 1 kilogram)
1 g = 1000 mg (since there are 1000 milligrams in 1 gram)

Using the conversion factors, we can set up the dimensional analysis:

(5 mg / 1 kg) * (100 kg) = 500 mg

Therefore, you should give 500 mg of cough medicine.