Question

An elephant's legs have a reasonably uniform cross section from top to bottom, and they are quite long, pivoting high on the animal's body. When an elephant moves at a walk, it uses very little energy to bring its legs forward, simply allowing them to swing like pendulums. For fluid walking motion, this time should be half the time for a complete stride; as soon as the right leg finishes swinging forward, the elephant plants the right foot and begins swinging the left leg forward.

Part A An elephant has legs that stretch 2.3 m from its shoulders to the ground. How much time is required for one leg to swing forward after completing a stride? Express your answer with the appropriate units.

Part B

What would you predict for this elephant's stride frequency? That is, how many steps per minute will the elephant take?

Express your answer in steps per minute as an integer.

Answer 1

Part A Parta Time period is, Time required for one leg to swing forward after completing a stride is, - M TIT t=- = . = 2 V mgd ( 2(2.3 m 1319.8 m/s) =1.24 s LV38 img1 Part B Number of steps per minute(for four legs) is,