# Calculating Oxygen Cylinder Durations



## Twilight Sparkle (Mar 12, 2013)

In my EMT-B class we're covering airway management, oxygen administration, and how long an oxygen cylinder/tank will last. Now I'm not to bad at math, but I am terrible at doing math in my head and I'm not allowed to use a pen and paper to do my calculations on quizzes/tests. Are there any easy to do formulas that can be used to figure out how long different oxygen cylinders will last at varying flow rates?
Thanks!


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## Medic Tim (Mar 12, 2013)

Twilight Sparkle said:


> In my EMT-B class we're covering airway management, oxygen administration, and how long an oxygen cylinder/tank will last. Now I'm not to bad at math, but I am terrible at doing math in my head and I'm not allowed to use a pen and paper to do my calculations on quizzes/tests. Are there any easy to do formulas that can be used to figure out how long different oxygen cylinders will last at varying flow rates?
> Thanks!



That is crazy. I have never heard of a program that doesn't allow you to figure out/ show your work. Most make you show everything. I can understand no calculator for test but that is crazy.


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## NomadicMedic (Mar 12, 2013)

Twilight, do you know the formula?


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## Twilight Sparkle (Mar 12, 2013)

Yeah in my class we use a little hand held thing to enter A/B/C/D on and it sends it to his computer, so we're not allowed to write on the test or anything.


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## Twilight Sparkle (Mar 12, 2013)

n7lxi said:


> Twilight, do you know the formula?



I do now, someone sent me a link to a different thread that you replied no with the formula


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## NomadicMedic (Mar 12, 2013)

Haha. Okay. Once you know the constant for the tank, it's pretty simple. 

We carry several spare cylinders, so it's not an issue for me, unless I've got a patient on CPAP and I need to move them on a D tank. Then I need to figure it out...


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## Carcarad (Mar 19, 2013)

*Formula*

volume of cylinder * ( pressure - 10% ) / flow given = time.


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