To work out the pressure the elephant exerts when all four of its feet are on the ground, we can use the formula for pressure:
Pressure = Force / Area
First, let's find the area of one foot. Since each foot has a circular base with a radius of 0.2 m, we can use the formula for the area of a circle:
Area = π * radius²
Area = π * 0.2²
Area ≈ 0.1257 m² (rounded to 4 decimal places)
Next, we need to find the total force exerted by the elephant when all four of its feet are on the ground. The question states that the total force is 40,000 N.
Now, we can substitute the values into the formula for pressure:
Pressure = 40,000 N / (0.1257 m²)
Calculating this gives us:
Pressure ≈ 318,554.85 Pa (rounded to 3 significant figures)
Therefore, the pressure the elephant exerts when all four of its feet are on the ground is approximately 318,555 Pa.