An elephant\'s legs have a reasonably uniform cross section from top to bottom,

Question

An elephant's legs have a reasonably uniform cross section from top to bottom, and they are quite long, pivoting high on the animal's body. When an elephant moves at a walk, it uses very little energy to bring its legs forward, simply allowing them to swing like pendulums. For fluid walking motion, this time should be half the time for a complete stride; as soon as the right leg finishes swinging forward, the elephant plants the right foot and begins swinging the left leg forward.

An elephant has legs that stretch 2.3 m from its shoulders to the ground. How much time is required for one leg to swing forward after completing a stride?

What would you predict for this elephant's stride frequency? That is, how many steps per minute will the elephant take?

Explanation / Answer

T =2p sqrt(2L/3g)

Where g =9.8 and L =2.3

T = 2*3.14*sqrt{(2*2.3)/(3*9.8)}

T = 2.484

It will be T/2 = 1.242

           2.   F= 1/T = 0.402564 Then, because an elephant has four legs,

multiply by 4

0.402564 *4 = 1.610256633

To get in minute

1.610256633 *60 = 96.61 steps/minute

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