• Question: Is there a reason cats always land on their feet?

    Asked by owlie to Frank, Leila on 22 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Leila Nichol

      Leila Nichol answered on 22 Mar 2013:

      There’s a lot of physics behind why cats always land on their feet – it’s called an aerial righting reflex. A cat can rotate into position and then stop its rotation to land comfortably. It’s trickier than you’d think. A cat can divide its body into two sections and rotate one away from the other. Their anatomy has adapted to help them survive falls. However – they don’t always land on their feet – it they fall short distances they might not have to to get into the correct position, which actually means they’re better at falling from larger heights!

    • Photo: Frank Soboczenski

      Frank Soboczenski answered on 22 Mar 2013:

      The first thing a cat does when it is falling is figuring out which way is up. it does it either with its gyro in the ear or with its eyes.
      Then it divides its body into two separate rotational axes to rotate the body in different speed and away from each other.
      There is even a big joke among scientists:
      Imagine that bread with butter and jam when it falls off the plate almost always lands on the jam side. And as cats almost always land on their feet what would happen if you put a bread with jam on a cat’s back ?? haha 🙂

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