Question

a patient is given two medications. one pill increases their heart rate by 7 beats per minute (bpm), while another decreases it by 11 bpm. what is the overall change in the patients heart rate after taking both medications?

+ 7 bpm

• 4 bpm
• 11 bpm

+ 4 bpm

Explanation:

Represent the changes as signed integers

An increase of \(7\text{ bpm}\) is represented as \(+7\).
A decrease of \(11\text{ bpm}\) is represented as \(-11\).

Calculate the overall change

$$ \text{Overall Change} = (+7) + (-11) $$

$$ \text{Overall Change} = -4\text{ bpm} $$

Answer:

• (A) + 7 bpm
• (B) - 4 bpm (Correct answer)
• (C) - 11 bpm
• (D) + 4 bpm