Even More Trivia: Cat Righting Reflex

Today's trivia is all about a remarkable ability of cats to land on their feet.

This ability is know as the Cat Righting Reflex, and is a remarkable to see in action. It has also been fairly extensively tested. By tested I mean scientists spend time dropping cats and seeing what they do.

The ability is a combination of the cats highly developed reflexes and its flexible body. The backbone is surprisingly flexible, and they have no functioning collarbone which allows further flexibility.

1) The cat can detect which way is up, either via vision or by its sense of balance. (works when blindfolded).

2) The cat then draws in its front legs and extends its hind legs. It starts a large body twist with the front half of its body, which produces a smaller turn in the rear section.

3) Then the cat extends its front paws, and draws in its rear paws, performing the complimentary turn with its rear half.

4) When both halves are aligned, it extends its paws and braces for impact.

Images of a falling cat which appeared in the journal Nature in 1894, captured in a chronophotography by Étienne-Jules Marey.

NASA

Some researchers where investigating this effect and describing it in a mathematical model. This caught NASA's attention so they funded the research which lead to the publication of "A Dynamic Explanation of the Falling Cat Phenomenon" in 1969.

NASA's interest lay in the fact that they could use this research to develop maneuvers that would help astronauts orient their bodies in the weightless conditions of space, during a spacewalk for example.

Kane worked with NASA and used his equations to develop moves which were tested by a gymnast on a trampoline. The gymnast is able to use a combination of his hips and arms to orient himself midair.