Your BAC (blood alcohol concentration) is a measure of the amount of alcohol you have in your blood. The measurement is the number of grams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.
For example, a BAC of 0.05 means 0.05 grams or 50 milligrams of alcohol in every 100 millilitres of blood.
A standard drink is one that contains 10.0 g of alcohol (ethanol). Now it is not always easy to work out the volume of an alcoholic drink that contains 10.0 grams of ethanol.
Consider the different strength beers shown on the right. Consuming a 425 ml glass of full strength beer is the equivalent of drinking 1.6 standard drinks. However consuming a similar volume of a low strength beer equates to just under one standard drink.
The diagram on the right compares different wines.
Calculating the volume of alcoholic drinks that are equivalent to one standard drink is not always feasible in a party scene. However you must be able to visually estimate what you are drinking.
Calculate the volume of wine with an alcohol content of 13%v/v that is equivalent to one standard drink given that the density of ethanol is 0.8 g/ml.
The solution is given on the right.
Pour this amount of liquid into a glass and visually compare the amount of wine needed.
