Words of Advice:

"Never Feel Sorry For Anyone Who Owns an Airplane."-- Tina Marie

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

"Flying the Airplane is More Important than Radioing Your Plight to a Person on the Ground
Who is Incapable of Understanding or Doing Anything About It." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Caturday Extra: Gravity Wanted!

Posted by on or about 19:51
Labels: ,

2 Brickbats Thrown:

  1. One of the research projects that I participated in college on was a study of how and why cats can land on their feet. This was back in the early 1970's.

    What we found was that if the cat was dropped with any net angular momentum the cat would not be able to keep its feed in the down position. The cat had to be dropped with zero angular momentum.

    The cat can translate from a feet up position to a feet down position with out generating any net angular momentum. The cat first rotate their head into the down position, followed by their front legs, then their rear legs and finally their tail. We even test Manx which have no tail, and found that the tail really plays very little if any part in the performance of the maneuver.

    How ever if the cat is has any angular momentum they cannot land on their feet they just keep spinning around their axis of rotation. No Cats were hurt or killed in the projects, some might have been scared a bit. All were dropped on to padded surfaces, and any initial angular momentum imparted to the cat at the time of the drop were kept very small.

    I kept one of the test subjects as a pet, and he lived to the ripe old age of 15.

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  2. I've seen cat's tails whirl around pretty quick in off-balance scenarios and falls. You might not believe the tail plays a large part, but cats believe it.

    A Heinlein story (Waldo,Inc.?) had a dog and cat that had lived their whole lives on a space station, in zero gee. I always wanted to see a cat like that. These kitties were just out of their depth, but imagine the grace of a cat, once it's used to the environment.

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