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It is a reflex action with cats that, when they fall, they automatically twist their body around, mid-flight, so that their feet are downwards. This has been dubbed the "cat righting reflex", and it begins to develop when kitten are as young as 3-4 weeks.
The "cat righting reflex" involves the cat bending in the middle so that the front half of their body rotates about a different axis than the rear half. They then tuck in their front legs which reduces the moment of inertia of the front half of their body while they extend their rear legs to increase the moment of inertia of the rear half of their body. The front half rotates up to 90° and the back half rotates in the opposite direction substantially less, such as 10°. This ability is largely due to their flexible spine and a non-functional collarbone. It is these qualities which enable cats to turn quickly, and balance themselves, thereby landing on their feet.
It is an important point that an average cat needs to drop from 3 feet or higher in order to completely turn itself around to land. In addition, just because it lands on its feet doesn't mean it doesn't get hurt. Every day cats seriously injure themselves or die from falls, and the theory that they always land on their feet should never be deliberately tested.
Click on the link below to go to the National Geographic page which shows a video of a cat falling.
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Why do cats always land feet first?
A cat's anatomy of their body allow it to always land feet first. The National Geographic did an entire study on this and have the story available on their website if one is interested in viewing it.
Do cats always land in their feet?
No. At some point, a cat will fall and hurt itself if it is high enough up.
Why does cat always land their feet?
It depends on the height measure, and furthermore, if a cat's tail is broken or the tip of it has been smashed they won't always land on their feet. If its tail is fine and its not to high up then Yes.
Can cats not land on their feet?
Yes it is possible that a cat doesn't land on it's feet
If you glue a peanut butter sandwich to a cat's back and throw it out a window which way will it land?
well, cats always land on their feet, so waht do you think
Do cats have enny thing that's cool about them?
Well it depends upon how you look at a cat. There are many interesting facts about a cat like they have a special sensor in there brain that allows them to always land on there feet.
How many lives does allegory cat have?
one cats are said they have nine lives because they always land on their feet but cats only have one life
What is the manipulated variable for Cats always land on their feet?
cats dont always land on their feet if they have some type of injury they wont or something else like that but they mostly always land on their feet because they are able to twist their body because of their backbone and make sure they land on thier feet
If a cat always lands on its feet and a piece of toast always lands butter side down What happens if you tie a piece of toast butter side UP to the back of a cat?
Then the cat would be paralized and it would go into a massive depression foaming up in the mouth and having massive orgasims, that is what will happen there will be no butter left PS what is an "orgasim?" or being "paralized?" No way dude. If you buttered the cat's feet it would still land on its feet, but if you butter some other part of the cat, things get more complicated. let us assume the cat is a rectangular prism, and can land on either its head, its butt, its back, its feet, or one of its two sides. (6 total possibilities) Since butter and cats' feet have equal probability power, (100% in both cases) When you combine them both into one object the probability is split. One hypothesis advanced by the scientific community is that the cat won't land at all. This hypothesis works out in theory, but in practice almost never happens. Today's theories have no place in the realm of extra-probability. (probabilities over 100%. This is a field where you need more than an infinite amount of trials to come to a conclusion.) Do note that not only will the cat not land at all in an extra-probability dimension, but that the cat would not land at all also in a frictionless vacuum, with the effects of gravity negated. This simulates an extra-probabilistic environment, and so would result in the same result. Another hypothesis, more accurate in normal-probabilistic practice, is that the cat will land in-between the butter and his feet. If experimented many times, there turns out to be an approximately normal distribution of landing results in-between the feet and the butter. This means that most often the cat will land exactly between the butter and his feet, but also will sometimes land other places, including on the butter and on his feet.
Why is your phone always land on its feet?
I would say it cannot. As phones do not have feet.
What are cats known to always be able to land on?
Their feet...
Why does cheese always land face down?
Because it's not a cat.
