Question

Suppose an elephant has a mass of 1,800 kg and a person has a mass of 75 kg. If the strength of gravitational force on the person was 735 N, what would be the gravitational force on the elephant? (Assume both the person and elephant are on Earth’s surface.)

Answer 1

Weight scales with mass, so F = m(g). From the person: g = 735 N / 75 kg = 9.8 m/s^2. For the elephant: F = 1800 kg × 9.8 m/s^2 = 17,640 N ≈ 1.76 × 10^4 N (≈ 17.6 kN).