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An elephant has feet with circular bases Each foot has a radius of 0.2 m, and the total force that the elephant exerts on the ground is 30,000 N. Work out the pressure the elephant exerts when all 4 of its feet are on the ground. Give your answer to 3 s.f.

Question

An elephant has feet with circular bases Each foot has a radius of
0.2 m, and the total force that the elephant exerts on the ground is
30,000 N.
Work out the pressure the elephant exerts when all 4 of its feet are on
the ground.
Give your answer to 3 s.f.

An elephant has feet with circular bases Each foot has a radius of 0.2 m, and the total force that the elephant exerts on the ground is 30,000 N. Work out the pressure the elephant exerts when all 4 of its feet are on the ground. Give your answer to 3 s.f.

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NormanVeteran · Tutor for 10 years

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First, we calculate the area of one foot:<br />\( A = \pi r^2 = \pi (0.2)^2 = 0.1256 \, m^2 \)<br /><br />Then, we multiply this by four to get the total area:<br />\( A_{\text{total}} = 4A = 4 \times 0.1256 = 0.5024 \, m^2 \)<br /><br />Finally, we calculate the pressure:<br />\( P = \frac{F}{A} = \frac{30000}{0.5024} = 59740.1709401709 \, N/m^2 \)<br /><br />Rounding to three significant figures gives a final pressure of \( 59700 \, N/m^2 \).

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## Step 1: <br />First, we need to calculate the total area of the elephant's feet. Since each foot is a circle, we use the formula for the area of a circle, which is \( \pi r^2 \), where \( r \) is the radius. The total area is then four times this value, since the elephant has four feet.<br /><br />## Step 2: <br />Next, we calculate the pressure exerted by the elephant. Pressure is defined as the force divided by the area over which the force is distributed. In this case, the force is 30,000 N and the area is the total area we calculated in the previous step.<br /><br />### The formula for pressure is: <br />**\( P = \frac{F}{A} \)**
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