A 5000 kg African elephant has a resting metabolic rate of 2500 W. On a hot day, the elephant's environment is likely to be nearly the same temperature as the animal itself, so cooling by radiation is not effective. The only plausible way to keep cool is by evaporation, and elephants spray water on their body to accomplish this.

Question

If this is the only possible means of cooling, how many kilograms of water per hour must be evaporated from an elephant's skin to keep it at a constant temperature?
Express your answer using two significant figures.

If you could provide an explanation that would be great.

Answer 1

heat loss=2500watts
masswater/time*Heatvaporization=2500
solve for masswater per second.

Now, convert that to kg/hr