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Thread: Weighing an Elephant?

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    Administrator CatInASuit's avatar
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    Default Weighing an Elephant?

    I saw this question in a magazine this morning...How do you weigh an elephant without using scales? ... and I thought it was appropriate.

    So, clever people of the board, without using Google etc. etc., how would you do it?

    Marks given for correct answers, bonus marks for inventive answers.
    In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.

  2. #2
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    We had a question like this about a huge block of limestone when I was on a field trip with my geology class in college. Many of us whipped out notebooks to feverishly start trying to calculate it. The guy who won just read the plaque.

    If the elephant lacks a plaque I can read, I'll fill up a pool and mark the level of the water, then get the elephant to submerge itself completely and mark how much the water rose. Add up the measurements of the water pre-elephant and co-elephent in centimeters to get the volume, then subtract the pre-elephant volume from the co-elephant volume. Presuming I know the density of an elephant's body per cubic inch--a human's is 1.01 grams--I can then multiply the volume of the elephant's body by that figure and determine how much it weighs in grams before converting it to a more sensible measurement for an elephant.
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

  3. #3
    Prehistoric Bitchslapper Sarahfeena's avatar
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    OK, now how do you get the elephant to submerge itself?

  4. #4
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Put a peanut on the bottom of the pool.
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

  5. #5
    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Zuul, a point about the pool weighing method: You don't need to submerge the elephant. Since the elephant, when floating will displace a mass of water equal to it's own weight, all you need to do is to get the elephant into a pool, fill the pool to a measured mark, and then let the elephant out of the pool. Seeing how much the water goes down, once the elephant is out, will let you know what volume of water the elephant displaced while floating. From there it's simple enough to calculate the mass of the water displaced to get the elephant's mass.

    Though I have trouble believing that this method is less hassle than getting an elephant up onto the trailer of a tractor trailer for weighing on those scales.
    Last edited by OtakuLoki; 12 Jan 2011 at 02:45 PM.

  6. #6
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Well, sure, but if you do it that way what are you going to do with the peanut?
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

  7. #7
    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Well, how are you going to make the peanut sink in the first place?

  8. #8
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Super glue of course.
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

  9. #9
    Wanna cuddle? RabbitMage's avatar
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    With horses there's a formula you can use that involves measuring the circumference of the girth (chest area) and the length of the body. I'd bet there's something similar for elephants.

  10. #10
    like Gandalf in a way Nrblex's avatar
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    So what's the official answer?

  11. #11
    Administrator CatInASuit's avatar
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    I have absolutely no idea.
    In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.

  12. #12
    my god, he's full of stars... OneCentStamp's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by OtakuLoki View post
    Well, how are you going to make the peanut sink in the first place?
    Quote Originally posted by Zuul View post
    Super glue of course.
    Fake peanut made from a rock painted brown. Then, as soon as the elephant enters the water and gives you your displacement figure, run like hell.
    "You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."

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