How Cats Fall Onto Their Feet

Cats are known for falling on their feet after falling from a height. Scientists are investigating how cats could do that. But it’s strange how cats are even able to do it.

According to Newton’s first law of motion, an object is at rest until an external force acts on it. Since there is nothing “pushing” against the cat’s body, it technically couldn’t turn. Now, Yasuo Higurashi and his team at Yamaguchi University might have found the answer. After studying 5 deceased cats, they found out that cats’ spines are separated into 2 sections.

The thoracic spine is the front part of a cat’s spine, and the lumbar spine is the back part of it. Also, the thoracic spine is more flexible than the lumbar spine, and that may play a role in the twisting. After dropping 2 live cats from 1 meter 8 times, they found that a cat spins separately: first, the thoracic spine turns, then the lumbar spine. But this is only a small discovery. There are still many different factors that could allow cats to do this trick.

A theory suggests that cats utilize their tails to balance their turning, but tests show that tailless cats could also land on their feet. This shows that the tail may only be a small part of the stunning feat. Another theory suggests that cats retract the front or back legs to turn that part of the body faster, like how dancers tuck their arms and legs tighter to spin faster. This means that the cats could move one side first, then move the other side, causing the cat to “turn.”

Sadly, even after many tests and theories, we still haven’t figured out the turning cat problem, even though we have advanced equipment. But we have advanced a step further in finding the cat mystery.