Twenty-one-year-old Max was driving home from a post-football game party last night when he was pulled over by the police. The officer said he was driving erratically and asked how many drinks he had had. Max told him that he had only had three beers and explained that he was pretty tired from the game. Then, just to prove he was fine, he offered to count backwards from a hundred. The officer thought he sounded sober and did not make him do it. Max couldn’t believe the officer thought he was driving drunk. However, he had second thoughts about what he did and wondered if drinking three beers after a game is perhaps too much.
A) Is it physiologically possible that Max’s driving was impaired even though he had consumed only three beers? Factor in Max’s height of 5’8” and weight of 200 pounds (91 kg), as well as that he has just played a long game of football.
B) What other factors influence the rate of alcohol absorption or breakdown that could have affected Max’s BAC?
C) How can all of these factors influence a decision about whether or not “three beers after a game is really too much?”