Can Cats Fly? Examining the 9 Lives Theory

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The discussion revolves around a humorous thought experiment involving a cat named Tigger and buttered toast. The idea is to strap buttered toast, butter side up, to Tigger's back and drop him from a height to see if he would hover due to the belief that cats always land on their feet and toast tends to land butter side down. Participants speculate on the implications of Tigger having three legs and the feasibility of conducting such an experiment, noting that no one has successfully completed it or recorded results. The conversation also touches on a tangent regarding the properties of cyanide, its almond-like smell, and the dangers of tasting chemicals, with references to Shakespeare's works adding a literary flair to the discussion. Overall, the thread blends humor, curiosity about physics, and a cautionary note about experimentation.
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As we have all been told cats have nine lives and ALWAYS land on there feet just the same as toast 9 times out of 10 lands butter side down.

Using this theroy what would happen if i was to strap a few pieces of buttered toast buttered side up on to the back of my physics teachers cat, Tigger? would it hover when i dropped it from say a 50ft building? and would the fact that Tigger has only three legs make any difference??!?

:smile: :confused: :smile:

Please help me i have wondered this for a while!

xxx
 
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The experiment is being set up, as per a previous thread. Can't remember which one.
 
hey, would you be able to find out which thread for me? I am new to this physics forums!

xxx
 
The dirac cat would certainly fall down, feet first. However, an anti-cat would fall up, toast first, and so nothing is observable.
 
musicmad_91 said:
As we have all been told cats have nine lives and ALWAYS land on there feet just the same as toast 9 times out of 10 lands butter side down.

Using this theroy what would happen if i was to strap a few pieces of buttered toast buttered side up on to the back of my physics teachers cat, Tigger? would it hover when i dropped it from say a 50ft building? and would the fact that Tigger has only three legs make any difference??!?

:smile: :confused: :smile:

Please help me i have wondered this for a while!

xxx
In theory, the person attempting to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat would have one eye land lens first on the floor and the second eye hit lens first into the ceiling.
 
BobG said:
In theory, the person attempting to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat would have one eye land lens first on the floor and the second eye hit lens first into the ceiling.
In theory? That sounds more like what would happen in practice if one were to attempt to test the theory. :smile:
 
Moonbear said:
In theory? That sounds more like what would happen in practice if one were to attempt to test the theory. :smile:
In practise, no one's been able to complete the experiment and record the results. Yeah, it's worse than the "what does cyanide taste like?" experiment.
 
thanks guys been waiting for replys for ages!
xx
 
  • #10
Gokul43201 said:
In practise, no one's been able to complete the experiment and record the results. Yeah, it's worse than the "what does cyanide taste like?" experiment.

Smells and tastes of almonds very mildly, I thought everyone knew that? That's why chemists waft things over their nose, explicitly to forgo the need to taste their experiments, or so I was told, I'm sure making moonshine with the water distilling still was an exception though:smile:

Basically get a load of Scientists to smell the liquid/vapour until someone identifies its odour. Tasting should be reserved only for those who like dicing with death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanide

Appearance and odor

Hydrogen cyanide is a colorless gas with a faint, bitter, almond-like odor. Nearly 40 percent of the population is unable to smell hydrogen cyanide. This seems to be genetically determined in a complex fashion[1]. Sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide are both white powders with a bitter, almond-like odor in damp air, due to the presence of HCN formed by hydrolysis:

NaCN + H2O → HCN + NaOH
 
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  • #11
Schrodinger's Dog said:
Smells and tastes of almonds very mildly
Don't know about the taste, but the reason "cyanide smells like almonds" is that in fact, almonds smell of cyanide (possessing small amounts of it).

Similar backwards applied attributes are frequently used with chemicals like hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell), esters (fruity odor), acetic acid (vinegary smell/taste), etc.

These references always remind of the 'frailty' lines from Hamlet and Twelfth Night.

[Hamlet]Hamlet:Frailty, thy name is woman.

<structurally similar to what I call a backwards attribute>

[Twelfth Night]Viola: Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we!
For such as we are made of, such we be.

<beautiful, ain't it?>
 
  • #12
Someone taste some cyanide, so we can know for sure :wink:

Thanks for the info. I figure that almonds contained cyanide, composing the thread, I wonder how many you'd have to eat to kill yourself?

Ah subjects for my next and final experiment :biggrin:

Shakespeare is always beautiful, I expect we talked backwards back then as a hang up from the origins of our language, the French language for example is repleat with backwards talk. Should be three blue colours surely.:smile:
 
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