How many people would it take to lift an elephant?

How many people would it take to lift an elephant?

Nellie the elephant is not particularly enthused about humans picking her up.


Asked by: Josh Perry, London

Let’s imagine we put the elephant on a weightless, rigid platform with plenty of carrying handles evenly distributed around the sides and that the elephant is asleep and positioned in the centre. A reasonably fit adult can lift about 80kg, so you’d need 75 people to lift a six tonne elephant. But a newborn elephant only weighs about 113kg, so if you do a bit of work in the gym, you might be able to lift one by yourself.

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