• Question: Why do cats always land on their feet?

    Asked by perryman to Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam, Susana on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Ed Lowe

      Ed Lowe answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Firstly, cats are bright enough to know that they want to land on their feet since it will hurt a lot less that way!
      Cats have both a really remarkable sense of balance and a very flexible spine which lets them twist themselves around in mid air to land on their feet.

    • Photo: Benjamin Hall

      Benjamin Hall answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Ed has explained the mechanics of this pretty well but cats don’t ALWAYS land on their feet.

      Cats need at least 30cm to right themselves when they fall, luckily they’re unlikely to get hurt from that height!

    • Photo: Susana Teixeira

      Susana Teixeira answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Not always though… They can be too young or too old for that, and they need a certain fall height to have time to twist round. I guess it is a more than handy ability to have when you are so curious and like to climb on to just about anything, anywhere, anytime!

    • Photo: Sam Horrell

      Sam Horrell answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I have no idea. But imagine what would happen if you stuck a piece of buttered toast face up (always lands butter side down) onto a cat (always lands on its feet). Would the 2 just cancel eachother out or will it create anti gravity and some sort of wormhole?

    • Photo: David Briggs

      David Briggs answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Because they are awesome. FACT.
      (And because of what Ed said – they have super fast reflexes that allow them to get the right way up really quickly)

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