Question

Could an elephant have the same momentum as a golf ball

Answer 1

Yes

Step-by-step explanation:

The momentum of an object is given by

`p=mv`

where

m is the mass of the object

v is its velocity

In this problem we are comparing an elephant with a golf ball. We know that the mass of the elephant is much larger than the mass of the golf ball:

`m_e >> m_b`

Since we want the two momenta to be equal

`p_e = p_b\\m_e v_e = m_b v_b`

We find

`v_b = (m_e)/(m_b)v_e`

So, this means that the velocity of the ball must be much larger than the velocity of the elephant.