MEASURING THE RATE OF INCREASE OF BLOOD ALCOHOL CONCENTRATION

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Biomedical scientists have studied the chemical and physiological changes in the body that result from
alcohol consumption. The reaction in the human body occurs in two stages: a fairly rapid process of
absorption and a more gradual one of metabolism. To predict the effect of alcohol consumption, one
needs to know the rate at which alcohol is absorbed and metabolized.
Medical researchers measured the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of eight fasting adult male
subjects after rapid consumption of 15 mL of ethanol (corresponding to one alcoholic drink). The data
they obtained were modeled by the concentration function
! C ( t ) = 0.0225te−0.0467t
where t is measured in minutes after consumption and C is measured in mg/mL. The graph of C is shown
below.

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(a) How quickly is the BAC increasing after 10 minutes?
Solution: We are asked to find the rate of change of C with respect to t when t = 10. The difficulty is that
we are dealing with a single instant of time (t = 10 min) and so no time interval is involved. However, we
can approximate the desired quantity by calculating the average rate of change of C with respect to t in
the time interval from t = 10 to t = 11:
chaneg in C C (11) − C (10 )
average rate of change = =
change in t 11− 10
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0.148073 − 0.141048
≈ = 0.007025 (mg/mL)/min
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The following table shows the results of similar calculations of the average rates of change [in (mg/mL)/
min] over succesively smaller time periods.
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Time interval Average rate of change Time interval Average rate of change

10 ≤ t ≤ 11 0.00703 9 ≤ t ≤ 10 0.00804

10 ≤ t ≤ 10.5 0.00727 9.5 ≤ t ≤ 10 0.00777

10 ≤ t ≤ 10.1 0.00747 9.9 ≤ t ≤ 10 0.00757

10 ≤ t ≤ 10.01 0.00751 9.99 ≤ t ≤ 10 0.00752

It appears that as we shorten the time period, the average rate of change is becoming closer and closer to a
number between 0.00752 and 0.00753 (mg/mL)/min. The instantaneous rate of change at t =10 is defined
to be the limiting value of these average rates of change over shorter and shorter time periods that start or
end at t = 10. So we estimate that the BAC increased at a rate of about 0.0075 (mg/mL)/min.
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(b) Draw the tangent line to the BAC curve at t = 10 and interpret its slope.
Solution: In (a) we estimated that the rate of increase of the blood alcohol concentration when t = 10 is
about 0.0075 (mg/mL)/min. The equation of the curve is ! C ( t ) = 0.0225te−0.0467t which gives
! C (10 ) ≈ 0.14105 . So, using the point-slope equation of a line, we get that an approximate equation of
the tangent line at t = 10 is
C − 0.14105 = 0.0075 ( t − 10 )
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or C = 0.06605 + 0.0075t
The concentration curve and its tangent line are graphed below and the slope of the tangent line is the rate
of increase of BAC when t = 10.

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Problems:
1. Researchers measured the average blood alcohol concentration C(t) of eight men starting one hour
after consumption of 30 mL of ethanol (corresponding to two alcoholic drinks):

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(a) Find the average rate of change of C with respect to t over each time interval:

(i) [1.0, 2.0] (ii) [1.5, 2.0] (iii) [2.0, 2.5] (iv) [2.0, 3.0]

What are the units?
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(a) (i) 20.15 (mg/mL)/h (ii) 20.12 (mg/mL)/h (iii) 20.12 (mg/mL)/h (iv) 20.11 (mg/mL)/h

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(b) Estimate and interpret the value of the derivative C’(2).
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(b) C’(2.0) < 20.12 (mg/mL)/h, meaning that the blood alcohol concentration was decreasing at a rate of
0.12 mg/mL per hour after 2.0 hours.
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2. Researchers measured the blood alcohol concentration C(t) of eight adult male subjects after rapid
consumption of 30 mL of ethanol (corresponding to two standard alcoholic drinks). The table shows
the data they obtained by averaging the BAC (in mg/mL) of the eight men.

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(a) What is the meaning of C’(t)?
C’(t) means the rate of how fast the blood alcohol concentration is changing (increasing or decreasing)
after t hours.
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(b) Make a table of estimated values for C’(t).

t (hours) C(t) Estimated C’(t) t (hours) C(t) Estimated C’(t)

0.0 0 - 1.5 0.24 -0.92

0.2 0.25 1.25 1.75 0.22 -0.08

0.5 0.41 0.53 2.0 0.18 -0.16

0.75 0.40 0.04 2.25 0.15 -0.12

1.0 0.33 -0.28 2.5 0.12 -0.12

1.25 0.29 -0.16 3.0 0.07 -0.20

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1. Malarial parasites. An experiment measured the number of malarial parasites N(t) per microliter of
blood, where t is measured in days. The results of the experiment are shown in the table.
t N t N

1 228 5 372,331

2 2357 6 2,217,441

3 12,750 7 6,748,400

4 26,661
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(a) What is the meaning of N’(t)? What are the units?
N’(t) is the rate of change of the number of malarial parasites with respect to time. Its units are (number of
parasites/! µ L)/day
(b) Construct a table of estimated values for N’(t).
t N’(t)

2 6,261

3 12,152

4 179,791

5 1,095,390

6 3,188,035
3. Tadpole weights. The graph shows the average body weight W as a function of time for tadpoles
raised in a density of 80 tadpoles/L.
(a) What is the meaning of the derivative W’(t)?
(b) Sketch the graph of W’(t).

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(a) W’(t) is the rate of change of average body weight with respect to time for tadpoles raised in a density
of 80 tadpoles/L.

(b) !
3. The graph of the derivative f’ of a function f is shown.
 (a) On what intervals is f increasing?
(b) If it is known that f(0) = 0, sketch a possible graph of f.

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(a) Increasing on (0,1), (4,5); decreasing on (1,4)