Doctors often use 200 mg/dL as an upper limit for safe blood cholesterol levels. At that level, how many grams of cholesterol are flowing in the veins of an adult with 5.7 liters of blood?

Answer 1

You need to know these metric system conversion factors:

a) 1 dL = 0.1 L, or, 1 L = 10 dL

b) 1000 mg = 1 g

Now you can solve with dimensional analysis:

grams = (1 gram / 1000 mg) x (200 mg / 1 dL) x (10 dL / 1 L) x 5.7 L

which gives you (1 x 200 x 10 x 5.7) / (1000 x 1 x 1) and all the units cancel except for grams

11.4 grams