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this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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You might've already seen this, but try using the method of dimensional analysis where you work backwards on a single line and you'll never get one of those problems wrong again.
The key is just working backwards by units using the equations you have available. I know somebody that only got one of the questions on his MCAT correct bc he used this method lol.
I use dimensional analysis, but it's over two lines... and not sure what you mean by working backwards, since the order doesn't really matter so long as every value is in the correct line.
Since typing it out would be ugly as sin, example image stolen from google:
...they like to give us things like pt weight in lbs and oz, and ask for final product of tablespoons or some shit cuz they enjoy wasting our time, lol.
That the type you mean?
I know there are a few different ways to crunch the numbers, but DA is my favorite so far cuz it's so consistent.
*edit, example pic changed, first one put mcg twice in the same line, which is a weird move. /shrug
Hopefully you can read my chicken scratch lol
So USAnian drugs are in metric units? I hope in actual work nurses get to use a phone app or something because this asks for mistakes
It works fine when everything around you is in those numbers. The scale for medications might be set to mg, or injections in mL. The bottles for both are labeled the same way. Everything works together, and you don't really have to think about it.
Part of the problem with converting everything to metric is it really needs to be everything. You can try talking about driving distances in km, and your gas tank in L/100km, and your speed in km/hr. However, the interstate highway signs will still be in miles, you buy gas in gallons, and the speed limit signs are in mph. This isn't a case where you can just choose to use the metric system as an individual, because the whole system works against you.
That is understandable, I was surprised that metric is actually used somewhere. Use in pharmacy also explains why in Hollywood stoner comedies they used grams, which always confused me.
Even in the US, science is mostly metric. But most US people are not exactly the scientific kind...
Modern science is, but there's plenty of old journals from the 80s and earlier that use degrees Rankine and gallons.
Fucking BTUs and shit.
PSI is another one that seems to be used over the metric/SI alternative in some science-adjacent applications.
Until you start looking at old stuff and have you figure out if they were working with the "millions scheme" or "thousands scheme," and if "1 billion" is equal to 10^12^ or 10^9^
https://www.affixes.org/numberwords.html
99% of it is metric. I think the biggest outlier is home care, where you go visit some grandma who's actively offended by metric, so if you tell her to take 7.5mL of something she'll just do the deer in the headlights thing, then shove the bottle up her ass.
Tell her instead that she needs to take 3 Mountain Dew caps full and suddenly she can follow instructions enough to not kill herself.
Then she shoves the Mountain Dew bottle up her ass.
Yeah but that's for pleasure.
I thought everything is bigger across the ocean but your Mountain Dew caps are tiny over there! ;)
Just googled it and apparently they're about 5mL each. Apparently I'm not great at eyeballing volume.
Add it to the pile of conversion failures between metric and imperial.
Yeah, 5ml is a teaspoon, but I'm not sure if it's reasonable to assume teaspoons have similar sizes across countries.
But after your first month in the job you'll convert and eyeball it even when half asleep :)
I know it should be obvious and maybe I missed the sarcasm, but the teaspoon unit is in no way the same as an actual teaspoon utensil. I also don't use my own feet to measure length.
Even dimensional analysis works best with metric because sometimes you need to convert units and almost all conversion in metric are base 10, so something like 1kg/km is 1000g/1000m is 1 gram per meter. But in imperial 1 pound/mile is 16 ounces / 5280 feet is who the fuck knows how many ounces per feet.