Final answer:
The passage is likely aimed at teaching young children, using the comparison of the sizes of whales and elephants to engage and inform. It includes a biological fact mixed with wonder to capture children's imagination and teaches about weight measurements and marine biology.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding Comparisons in Weight Measurement
The passage discussing how whales compare to elephants in terms of size and anatomy is likely meant to teach young children. Such comparisons, emphasizing the astonishing size of whales and their unique biological adaptations like wide blood vessels, are designed to be engaging and informative for a younger audience. Furthermore, the fact about the whales' blood vessels being so wide that a trout could swim through is an attempt to fascinate and capture the imagination of children, though it has a biological basis related to the whales' need to maintain optimal body temperature through countercurrent heat exchange.
To answer the student-specific questions: The weight of a humpback whale can be compared to that of polar bears. If a humpback whale weighs 40 tons, which is equivalent to 80,000 pounds (since 1 ton = 2,000 pounds), and a polar bear weighs 1,000 pounds, it would take approximately 80 polar bears to equal the weight of one humpback whale.
On the other hand, Munni's claim that he weighed only 30 pounds less than a whale is incorrect. Even if some whales can weigh up to 150 tons, this significantly exceeds a human weight of 120 pounds by a considerable margin. Munni's misunderstanding may highlight the concept of unit analysis and the vast difference in scale between human and whale weights.
In conclusion, such biological comparisons are typically featured in educational content for children, aiming to instill a sense of wonder and curiosity about the natural world, while providing an opportunity to learn about customary units of weight and the science behind marine biology.