Question

An elephant and an ant are to be projected out of the earth into space. What is the velocity needed to do so?

(a) Elephant needs to be projected with a higher velocity

(b) Ant should be projected with a higher velocity

(c) Both should be projected with the same velocity

(d) Elephant cannot be projected to space

The question was posed to me by my school principal while I was bunking the class.

This interesting question is from Gravitational and Gravity topic in section Gravitation of Engineering Physics I

Answer 1

Correct answer is (c) Both should be projected with the same velocity

For explanation I would say: The escape velocity ve=√2gR, does not depend upon the mass of the projected body. Thus we need the same velocity to project an elephant and an ant into space.