let's focus on two other measurement systems the avar dupois system and the household system both of these systems use units of pounds and ounces to measure weight and fluid ounces to measure liquids Additionally the household system uses familiar units like teaspoons tablespoons cups and Pints these units are often used in cooking and everyday life in Pharmacy settings the avore deup system is vital for measuring bulk drugs accurately for example when pharmacists measure large quantities of a substance they rely on pounds and ounces accurate measurements ensure the efficacy and safety of medications making this system indispensable in Daily Pharmacy operations while the household system is convenient because it is so common it can be inaccurate household measuring tools can vary leading to potential dosing errors the metric system which is the international standard for science ific measurement offers precise and consistent measurements knowing how to convert between a vapa and household systems and Metric systems is crucial here are common ratios between these two systems one pound equals 16 o 1 tablespoon equals 3 teaspoons and also equals 15 mL 1 fluid ounce equals 30 ml 1 cup equal 240 ML 1 pint equals 480 ml let's say you have an order of 5 pounds of acetaminophen how many ounces is this to convert this to ounces you first set up the proportion based on the known ratio 1 pound or 16 o equal 5 lb or x o next solve for x by cross multiplying and dividing 1B multipli by X oz equal 5 lb multiplied 16 o 1B * X Oz is simply X Oz 5 * 16 oz = 80 oz therefore 5 lb of acetaminophen is equal to 80 oz let's work on this example together you need to fill a prescription of 12 fluid ounces of ibuprofen syrup the order needs to be fulfilled in milliliters how many milliliters of ibuprofen syrup do you need remember 1 fluid ounce equals 30 milliliters you can pause the video to solve this question to solve for the number of milliliters you can set up a proportion and cross multiply 1 fluid oun multipli x = 12 fluid ounces multipli 30 millit simplifying the equation gives x = 12 * 30 that is 360 M therefore you need 360 mL of ibuprofen syrup time for another one a dose requires 2 tablespo of medication how many mill of the medication will be there in a single dosage keep in mind that 1 tablespoon equals 15 millit pause the video and try to solve it to solve for the number of milliliters you can set up a proportion and cross multiply 1 tesp * x m = 2 tesp * 15 ml x = 30 ml therefore 2 tablespo of the medication equals 30 ml let's say you have a prescription that requires 1.5 cups of a liquid acetaminophen Tylenol and you need to convert this to fluid ounces now remember that one cup equals 8 flu ounces to convert cups to fluid ounces set up the following proportion 1 cup over 8 flu o equal 1.5 cups over X flu oun solving for x by cross multiplying 1 cup multiplied X flu ounces equals 1.5 cups multiplied by 8 flu ounces simplifying it gives X = 1.5 * 8 which equals 12 flu ounces therefore 1.5 cups of liquid acetaminophen is equal to 12 fluid ounces it is important for pharmacy technicians to guide patients on how to measure their medications accurately encourage them to use dosing spoons or cups provided by their Pharmacy instead of household utensils these tools are designed to ensure precise dosing