• Question: Why do cats always land on their feet?

    Asked by 758rhed26 to David, Eva, Nicholas, Rachel on 18 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Nicholas Pearce

      Nicholas Pearce answered on 18 Nov 2015:

      Hey,

      Cats are able to always land on their feet because they have a really flexible spine. This allows their front and back halves to twist in opposite directions, so they don’t have to rely on spinning their whole body in the same direction. This means that they can use their muscles to spin easily and will land on their feet.

      Here’s a great video that shows you in slow motion how they do it:

      In addition cats are able to parachute out and fall slow enough that they don’t get hurt – no matter how far they fall from! (Don’t try it with your pet cat though, it will be okay, but still might not enjoy it)
      >(^.^)<

    • Photo: David Nunan

      David Nunan answered on 18 Nov 2015:

      Hi,

      Good question. I get kids I teach Capoeira to act like cats because of exactly the fact they always land on their feet (you’re only allowed to put your hands and feet on the ground in Capoeira).

      It’s due to an understanding of physics and biology that cats are able to land on their feet when they fall! And there’s evidence to prove it.

      Not the best kind of evidence which in this case would be an observational study where we through cats out of tall buildings at observe what happens! Fortunately scientists are unwilling to do this! But where we have seen cats falling by themselves we now know cats reach terminal velocity, the speed at which the downward tug of gravity is matched by the upward push of wind resistance, at a slow speed compared to large animals like humans and horses.

      This allows the cat to calm down enough to more thoroughly appraise the situation. Cats apparently all have an instinctive understanding of certain laws of physics, or at least they know they’re more likely to survive a fall it they spread themselves out. They stretch their legs and neck out, increasing their surface area, which decreases their terminal velocity. This slows the cat down considerably, At this slower speed it can easily survive the fall (theoretically from any height, though 32 stories is the highest on record) 🙂

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