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Math and Pharmacy
Started by Sahira
Hello Sahira.
If you're wondering whether calculus I is needed in pharmacy at all, well all I can tell you is that it's one of the pre-reqs 😀 Most professional schools today like medical and pharmacy require you to have an advance understanding of mathematics like calculus. Personally, I think it's just a bar set to have more rounded students. It's there to see that if you're good in sciences, you should also be good in mathmatics. Most schools I've seen require calculus I and maybe statistics I. (Their theory is that once you pass calculus I, then other math courses below that - like college algebra, pre-cal algebra and trig - are basket weaving classes).
Now if you're wondering if calculus has any applications to pharmacy, then yes. Consider this example: let A'(t) = 300e^(-0.8t) be the rate of active drug (mg/hr) in the bloodstream t hours after administered. How much does the amount decrease in 2 hours? To solve, you'd have to take the definite integral from 0 to 2 hours of the expression, evaluated at t. The answer should be in mg. All this mess is just to have a printed label on a drug like Advil so you can take another pill after x hours.
Of course, depending on which field of pharmacy you're going into you might not have to do math problems like that. Chances are you'll be doing drug buffers
If you're wondering whether calculus I is needed in pharmacy at all, well all I can tell you is that it's one of the pre-reqs 😀 Most professional schools today like medical and pharmacy require you to have an advance understanding of mathematics like calculus. Personally, I think it's just a bar set to have more rounded students. It's there to see that if you're good in sciences, you should also be good in mathmatics. Most schools I've seen require calculus I and maybe statistics I. (Their theory is that once you pass calculus I, then other math courses below that - like college algebra, pre-cal algebra and trig - are basket weaving classes).
Now if you're wondering if calculus has any applications to pharmacy, then yes. Consider this example: let A'(t) = 300e^(-0.8t) be the rate of active drug (mg/hr) in the bloodstream t hours after administered. How much does the amount decrease in 2 hours? To solve, you'd have to take the definite integral from 0 to 2 hours of the expression, evaluated at t. The answer should be in mg. All this mess is just to have a printed label on a drug like Advil so you can take another pill after x hours.
Of course, depending on which field of pharmacy you're going into you might not have to do math problems like that. Chances are you'll be doing drug buffers
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completely right. There's no B. Pharm anymore.
And math is useful in pharmacy school in the calculations class and in pharmacokinetics.
