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Is there a Feline Pesematologist in the house?
By Linda | February 23, 2009
This goes to prove that for every occurrence in nature there springs up a science to study it - and probably a government grant to fund it!
Pesematology is defined as the scientific study of falling objects. Feline Pesematology is devoted specifically to the physics of falling cats. And yes, there really is enough data to merit some study!
Not so terminal velocity
The regularity with which cats fall from high places resulted in the coining of the phrase in 1976 “Feline High Rise Syndrome”by Dr Gordon Robinson. In 1987 two veterinarians, Drs. Wayne Whitney and Cheryl Mehlhaff of the Animal Medical Centre in Manhattan conducted a study on Feline High Rise Syndrome, the results of which were published in the Journal of American Veterinary Medicine include the following:
- Of the 115 cats who were brought into the Medical Centre having sustained a fall of between two and thirty two stories 90% survived;
- 10% of the cats which fell between 2-6 stories died;
- Only 5% of the cats which fell between 7-32 stories died - the doubling of the survival rate as the height increased can be accounted for by the effects of terminal velocity;
- The most common injury following a fall is nose bleeds.
All earthbound falling objects (including cats) will accelerate only up to a certain speed known as “terminal velocity” at which point air resistance becomes strong enough to counter-balance gravity. For falling humans terminal velocity is around 130 mph but it’s less than half that speed for a plummeting pussycat. Once terminal velocity is reached, the sensation of falling diminishes. The cats are thought to relax once this happens causing them land in a better position and explaining why falls from higher floors seem to be more survivable.
A few more Interesting facts governing the aerodynamic tendencies of tumbling tabbies:
Cats possess a righting reflex, an innate ability to orient themselves as they fall, enabling them to land feet-first, often uninjured. The righting reflex begins to appear at 3-4 weeks of age, and is perfected at 7 weeks. Cats are able to do this as they have an unusually flexible backbone and no functional collarbone or clavicle (shoulder blade).
After determining up from down visually or with their vestibular apparatus (in the inner ear), cats manage to twist themselves to face downward without ever changing their net angular momentum. They are able to accomplish this with these key steps:
- Bend in the middle so that the front half of their body rotates about a different axis than the rear half.
- Tuck their front legs in to reduce the moment of inertia of the front half of their body and extend their rear legs to increase the moment of inertia of the rear half of their body so that they can rotate their front half quite far (as much as 90°) while the rear half rotates in the opposite direction quite a bit less (as little as 10°).
- Extend their front legs and tuck their rear legs so that they can rotate their rear half quite far while their front half rotates in the opposite direction quite a bit less.
Depending on the cat’s flexibility and initial angular momentum, if any, the cat may need to repeat steps two and three one or more times in order to complete a full 180° rotation.
And speaking of spinning cats… CLICK HERE
Topics: Animal Kingdom, Nature, Science Factoids |
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:48 am
OK this is too funny. My seven year old is working on a report about cats. We are homeschoolers so the way I had him approach it was to ask questions he wanted to find the answers to and write based on the answers. One of the questions was “Why do cats always land on their feet?” Maybe there is a job for him in feline Pesematology!
If you ever need an art project feel free to stop by my site and use what you will.
Thanks for this. You have been bookmarked!
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Thanks Julie and I will stop by. Feline Pesematology sounds like a good career for our kids these days over the old one’s like banking and Wall Street!
May 30th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
I’m browsing the internet after my 5 week old kitten Chico feel aprox. 5 stories this morning, a straight unhindered fall onto hardened soil. I’ve was not aware of the amazing survival rate of cats until now. I paralyzed as he went of the edge, the impact sound was horrible. Aprox. 10 seconds after impact I heard his miau and ran downstairs. He was in chock and dirty, I rushed him to an emergency vet certain he was dying. He had a full check up, X-rays and remained in obervation for 6 hours. He is now at home and amazingly seems fine, a little coy in using one of his back legs, but has been running around, jumping, playing, eating and defecating as always. He’s recovered much better than I have that’s for sure
Amazing, makes me want to believe in miracles, or in cat’s 9 lives anyway 
June 1st, 2009 at 7:33 am
I’m glad that Chico is recovering well from his fall. Cats are amazingly resilient! Perhaps he learned his lesson, but another unusual cat trait is that they never do seem to learn caution. This is why the “fenceless fence” shock collar device that works so well to keep dogs contained is not recommended for cats.