How many people would it take to lift an elephant?

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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