When we think of animals that jump and romp and bounce around a lot, usually the elephant isn't the one that comes to mind. But just because we've never seen elephants jump doesn't mean they can't...or can they? Well, they probably can't. For one thing, elephants don't have knees on all 4 legs. Their front leg joints are built more like wrists, the way your hand connects to your arm. Then there's the more obvious problem, which is that elephants simply weigh too much. Our noble pachyderm friends can tip the scales around 15,000 pounds, so it would take a lot of effort to get all 4 feet off the ground. After all, we don't see giant hippos or rhinos jumping around, either. Of course, it could just be that elephants don't have a reason to jump...they're probably tall enough to reach everything they need.
Now here's today's math~
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Wee ones: If an elephant can get only 1 foot off the ground at a time, how many of its feet are still on the ground?
Little kids: If an elephant has 2 knees and 2 wrists, how many knees do you and your pet elephant have together? Bonus: If you try to train 7 elephants to jump, and the 1st does it but the 2nd won't, and the 3rd does it with all of them alternating, does the 6th elephant jump?
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Big kids: The Klipspringer, an African antelope, can jump up to 10 or even 15 times its own height. Elephants average around 13 feet tall...if an elephant could jump 10 times its height, how crazy-high could that elephant jump? Bonus: Hey, you've got knees - what if you could jump 10 times your height? How high could you jump?
Answers:
Wee ones: 3 feet.
Little kids: 4 knees. Bonus: No - the even-numbered elephants refuse!
Big kids: 130 feet (roughly a 9- or 10-story building). Bonus: Different for everyone...find your height in inches, then tack on a 0 at the end to multiply by 10.
