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How Falling Cats, Physics, Science Relate to One Another
A cat always lands on its feet. Generations of young (and not so young) boys have conducted experiments testing this. These reveal while not universally true, this saying proves generally so. The question is why?
“Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics” by Gregory J. Gbur, answers the question. He blends whimsy, the history of technology, the development of physics and cat curiosities to explain why cats land on their feet.
The ultimate solution to what appears to be a trivial problem takes Gbur and his readers on a trip rambling through apparently disconnected items: how a horse gallops, the development of photography, the Foucault pendulum, relativity, space travel, figure skating, skyscrapers, why warm water freezes quicker than cold water, and robotics.
These may not seem connected, yet as Gbur shows, each is an element in solving the puzzle of how a cat manages to twist itself to land feet first, even if it enters free fall upside down.
Take photography and galloping horses. Before high-speed photography, all theories about how cats fell were guesswork. Cats moved too quickly for humans to observe their motions when falling. Similarly, no one knew how horses really galloped.
Pre-photography paintings capture the motion of a galloping horse incorrectly. The camera was first used capture a galloping horse — and then falling cats.
Gbur explains how these falling cat photos demolished then-existing explanations of how cats righted themselves. “Falling Felines” proves as much a history of how science works as much as explaining how cats fall.
Scientists developed new theories on cat-righting. Although they proved incorrect, some scientists remained stubbornly fixed to their pet theories, creating controversies lasting for decades. Gbur shows this behavior isn’t limited to research on falling cats, but recurs frequently in science.
The book also examines cat physiology as well as physics. Gbur presents how cats developed their ability to right themselves and explains why cats survive falls from skyscrapers.
“Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics” is a fun book. It’s as much about scientific research as falling cats, an exploration of scientific inquiry. It playfully examines science and cats on multiple levels.
“Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics” by Gregory J. Gbur, Yale University Press, 2019, 352 pages, $26
I write a weekly book review for the Daily News of Galveston County. (It is not the biggest daily newspaper in Texas, but it is the oldest.) After my review appears on Sunday, I post the previous week’s review here on Sunday.
Published in Science & Technology
Is it suitable for teenagers?
Yes. (It won’t give them any ideas about dropping cats.)
More about how much science background they need.
Where did the cover artist get the picture of Kikyo?
Buy that man a vowel.
They don’t. He explains it all. It is really more history than mathematics.
“Pet” theories… I see what you did there.
@seawriter, given this, do you think it would work if consumed as an audio book?
You will miss the pictures, but yeah.
Does it explain climate change “Science!” then?
In a sense it does. It shows how science goes off in the weeds, but seems remarkably obtuse about climate science.
Here is Destin, a scientist from Smarter Every Day.
I’ve always liked the descriptor quick like cat. Now I know why.
My cat has been avoiding me ever since I started reading your essay.
Perhaps Kitty has noticed @rightangles wonderful cartoon, on her current post about Mother’s Day.