# Alcohol Q **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 7, 2001, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-q/64631 "2001-05-07T10:42:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Living\_Dead\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecb155/32.png) [@Living\_Dead\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Dead_Girl)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-q/64631/1 "2001-05-07T10:42:08Z")
If someone had consumed 4 330 ml bottles of Kristov (vodka-y drink) with 5% alcohol in a 2-3 hour period, around how drunk would they be? And how could I work this info out for myself? ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-q/64631/2 "2001-05-07T11:05:31Z")
5%? Not very drunk. However, several factors are of importance here. All the items are general formulations, and I take no responsibility for individual deviations. [ul][_]Body weight. The heavier you are, the smaller the effect of the alcohol.[_]Training. If you’re someone who drinks regularly, the alcohol won’t have the same effect on you as it has on someone who downs his first drink.[_]Age. Although this is nothing scientific, I’ve noticed that young people (this may be the experience part above as well, of course) and older people tend to react more quickly to alcohol.[_]The drink itself. Again, from personal experience, I’ve noticed that some types of liquor hit me harder than others, even though they’re comparable in terms of their alcohol levels.[/ul]Hope this helps! And BTW, don’t drink and drive - ever. I hope your question wasn’t intended as such. ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-q/64631/3 "2001-05-07T11:07:47Z")
That’s a bit hard to answer, since alcohol affects different people so differently (and even affects the same person different given different factors, such as their mood, what they’ve had to eat, and so forth). That aside, for an experienced drinker, I don’t think that amount would affect them very much at all. An inexperienced drinker, however, might get a decent buzz off of it, I’m not really sure. If you’re looking specifically for blood alcohol content, a quick search should give you a table to estimate it. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Dead\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecb155/32.png) [@Living\_Dead\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Dead_Girl)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-q/64631/4 "2001-05-07T11:13:51Z")
**Coldfire:** - Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with drinking and driving - just a general wondering after a chat with a friend. And thanks for the answer - a mod replied to my post! I’m so excited! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morrison_s_Lament)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-q/64631/5 "2001-05-07T11:37:06Z")
It would get you drunk if you’re a DAMN WIMP! 😃 Just kidding! 🙂 — G. Raven ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-q/64631/6 "2001-05-07T15:06:26Z")
There is a formula & description for this: [http://www.mmsp.org/alcohol/body.htm](http://www.mmsp.org/alcohol/body.htm) e.g. depends on: 1. number of ounces of alcohol consumed; 2. number of hours over which it has been consumed; and 3. number of pounds the person weighs. To figure out how many drinks there are in the bloodstream, just use the following formula: ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-q/64631/7 "2001-05-07T15:34:21Z")
[http://www.ou.edu/oupd/bac.htm](http://www.ou.edu/oupd/bac.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-q/64631/8 "2001-05-07T21:44:19Z")
Way back when in health class, they also said that gender made a difference, and that all other factors being equal (body mass, age, previous drinking experience, etc.), a woman would get more drunk than a man. I don’t recall by how much. ---
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-q/64631/9 "2001-05-07T22:34:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > For instance, if a person has consumed six drinks in three hours, there will be three drinks left in the bloodstream (6-3=3). I used the thread given by pkbites and used their reverse computation feature (how much of anything would give you particular BAC). There was this at the bottom of the page > [@](#): > > **Note** > This does not take any time considerations into account. On average a person will eliminate about **0.02% of the alcohol in their system per hour.** Because there is no time consideration given to the analysis here this should be considered a minimal amount of consumption that occurred. 0.02% is quite a bit different than the formula above. In other words, if 0.02% is correct, it would take 50 hours to eliminate 1% of the alcohol. I suspect they _must_ mean 2%. In any case, this a far cry of eliminated 1 drink per hour from the first quote. Case in point, I few years ago, let’s say '98, there was a young man at Texas A&M who got drunk, was balancing on a stair railing in the parking garage and fell to his death. The news reported that he had a BAC that was greater than 0.2, IIRC. This occurred around 3-4 am. That same week I had to take a driver’s ED class to offset the cost of a ticket (a nice little scam here in TX). Anyway, I had lunch with the instructor who pulled out her handy-dandy compute BAC wheel and figured that if the dead guy started drinking at about 9pm and finished about 3am, he needed less than 2 drinks an hour for the 6 hr time frame to reach that level of intoxication. (I forget what weight we assumed or read.) I think the media does a great disservice with that whole “3 drinks in an hour for 150 1b. man” stuff. All the digestible-for-the-masses neglect the effects of time. The way the media reports, you would think 3 drinks **per hour** was allowed. Tinker ---
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-q/64631/10 "2001-05-07T22:42:32Z")
I just looked at Handy’s site. It seems more reliable than site referenced by pkbites. In addition to the 0.02% thing, in the list for what I could drink, they included how many 96-proof drinks I could have. IIRC, most bourbons and scotches are 80 or 86 proof. It seems as if that, too, is a mistake. In any case, even if the first citation has more reliable info, I would make a more conservative computation. Maybe burn off 1/2 drink per hour. Tinker