A cat is able to land on its feet after a tail. Why?
Answers
I think there must be many “forces” at play (pun intended). But two basic physics concepts at play would be,
Damping :Stronger Muscles strength to bodyweight ratio, allowing cats to dampen the immense recoil of the fall, you can see how damping works in this youtube vedio.
2. Lower Terminal Velocity : Although by Neton’s Laws(in vaccum), the cat should fall at the same time and velocity as a human being. But luckily we dont live in Vaccum. So there is additional drag from air which brings down cat’s velocity. This drag (for a long enough fall) would make the cat reach a constant velocity, known as the “Terminal Velocity” . $$Vt=2mgρACo−−−−√$$
Where “m” stands for mass and “A” stands for Area. Now cats being the four legged animals that they are have a much higher surface area “A” , with respect to the mass “m”, giving them a much smaller terminal velocity than Human beings and hence further reducing the force of impact.
hope it helps
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