Housecat Reproduction

[sbrothy]

On a (not very) related note how many 4th graders do you think you could take on in one session? 10, 40, 500?

To quote Peter Griffin from Family Guy: "I'd back into a toilet and let them come one at at time. Bang, bang, bang. So I guess 400!"

Nah, sorry. Very bad taste.

 

[Rive]

I'm a bit concerned though, that - why cats?

 

[pinball1970]

I'm a bit concerned though, that - why cats?

He was a bit vague. Gestation period? Litter size? Rats probably would have been better, or rabbits.
It's in GD so I looked at it like a maths question rather than a cat question.
I'm amazed I got this far without saying I don't even like cats.

 

[Hornbein]

These are excellent analyses. I'm wondering about applications to astronomy.

After 35 years the aggregate mass of the housecats would equal that of the largest known black hole. After 52 years it would equal the mass of the visible universe.

 

[Baluncore]

After 35 years the aggregate mass of the housecats would equal that of the largest known black hole.

There was a time when the accumulating weight of National Geographic magazines was predicted to cause earthquakes and subsidence, changing the geography of the larger US cities. That would have been a self-referential, positive feedback mechanism, worthy of Soviet Union planning at the time.

 

[Hornbein]

There was a time when the accumulating weight of National Geographic magazines was predicted to cause earthquakes and subsidence, changing the geography of the larger US cities. That would have been a self-referential, positive feedback mechanism, worthy of Soviet Union planning at the time.

No one wanted to throw their National Geographics away.

When I was a kid I'd read the encyclopedia. Nowadays people are getting rid of them. Here in Bali a local restaurant has a dozen complete sets of encyclopedias on display. Not accessible for reading. In general books are now decorations. People often can't give pianos away even though a passable one is superior to the best electric version.

 

[.Scott]

Start with one hundred housecats. Given unlimited resources, in seven years you will have a billion housecats.

I had friends (a married couple) who lived in an apartment in Arlington, VA and who tried this exact experiment.
I don't know about 7 years, but in 7 months, you have a very potent smell that cannot be described.

That was way more than 7 years ago. I have since moved to New Hampshire. Since a couple of decades have passed and the smell has not reached me, I am guessing that they have failed to provide the "unlimited resources".
New Hampshire has a huge advantage over Virginia. Global warming not-with-standing, house cats cannot survive outdoors for a NH winter.

 

[noahthompson]

The billion-cat figure is the interesting part to me. Even with unlimited food, you hit space and disease limits long before seven years, and the growth curve assumes every cat breeds at maximum rate from day one. I'd be more curious what model that number came from, since real populations overshoot and crash rather than climb cleanly. Not doubting you, just wondering if it's a straight doubling calculation or something accounting for generations overlapping.

 

[Rive]

I'd be more curious what model that number came from

It's no model: it's just a simplified example for the absurdities related to exponential growth in populations.

To be honest, I'm a bit pissed by this example since it is also often used as a rallying tenet for some misguided anti-cat activism, while completely forgetting what nature says about the thing - and that some so dearly 'protected' species has far worse numbers.