Written by Madhav Bahl, a grade 8 student

In school, we learn various concepts in science, mathematics, social science etc.  While learning we might wonder how knowing about Babar, Shakespeare, etc. would help us. Well, we learn things we should do or not do in a situation so that history in a bad case does not repeat itself. But now comes the problem after a few years we forget it. I don’t think a person in college would remember what he did in 9^th class. Recently there was an incident that showed that concepts learned in school are still necessary. An elephant stranded in a well was rescued in Jharkhand by using a Principle of Archimedes.

How was the elephant saved?

The elephant accidentally fell into a well in a village on Tuesday 16^th February 2021 and was seen falling down by villagers. The villagers contacted the forest department and the forest officials rushed to rescue the stranded elephant at around 7 am on Tuesday. The elephant had been in the well for a few hours by now. The rescue operation lasted 3 hours. During this time the officials pumped water into the well so that the elephant could float up.

They used the Archimedes principle – upward buoyant force theory.

Archimedes‘ principle is a physical law of buoyancy. It was discovered by the ancient Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes.

The law states that any body completely or partially submerged in a fluid (gas or liquid) at rest is acted upon by an upward, or buoyant, force, the magnitude of which is equal to the weight of the fluid.

What is the upward buoyant force theory?

The upward buoyant force theory tells us that if a body in a fluid is acted upon by a force pushing upward called the buoyant force which is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces. This in simple words means that the force of the water which will submerge the elephant will bring it upwards and help it out of the well as it cannot be extracted safely by any other means

How was this theory applied?

This theory was used by putting water in the well to completely submerge the elephant. This was done by using three motorised pumps to fill the well. The next problem was how to get the elephant out and they did that by using a ramp, on which the elephant stood on and then came out. This was a high-risk high reward situation as the elephant would have died if the theory did not work.

Surprising facts

Even after staying in water for so long the elephant still had no injuries and then it went to the forest right after it came out of the well. The other surprising fact was that the people of Amliya Toli village in Jharkhand’s Gumla district actually wanted to help the elephant, not like the various other cases where wild animals have been attacked when they enter villages with inhabitants.

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