Why Falling Cats Always Seem To Land On Their Feet (nytimes.com) 66
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: In a paper, published last month in the journal The Anatomical Record, researchers offered a novel take on falling felines. Their evidence suggests new insights into the so-called falling cat problem, particularly that cats have a very flexible segment of their spines that allows them to correct their orientation midair. [...] People have been curious about falling cats perhaps as long as the animals have been living with humans, but the method to their acrobatic abilities remains enigmatic. Part of the difficulty is that the anatomy of the cat has not been studied in detail, explains Yasuo Higurashi, a physiologist at Yamaguchi University in Japan and lead author of the study. [...]
Modern research has split the falling cat problem into two competing models. The first, "legs in, legs out," suggests that cats correct their falling trajectory by first extending their hind limbs before retracting them, using a sequential twist of their upper and then lower trunk to gain the proper posture while in free fall. The second model, "tuck and turn," suggests that cats turn their upper and lower bodies in simultaneous juxtaposed movements. [...]
The researchers found that the feline spine was extremely flexible in the upper thoracic vertebrae, but stiffer and heavier in the lower lumbar vertebrae. The discovery matches video evidence showing the cats first turn their front legs, and then their lower legs. The results suggest the cat quickly spins its flexible upper torso to face the ground, allowing it to see so that it can correctly twist the rest of its body to match. "The thoracic spine of the cat can rotate like our neck," Dr. Higurashi said.
Experiments on the spine show the upper vertebrae can twist an astounding 360 degrees, he says, which helps cats make these correcting movements with ease. The results are consistent with the "legs in, legs out" model, but definitively determining which model is correct will take more work, Dr. Higurashi says. The results also yielded another discovery: Cats, like many animals, appear to have a right-side bias. One of the dropped cats corrected itself by turning to the right eight out of eight times, while the other turned right six out of eight times.
Modern research has split the falling cat problem into two competing models. The first, "legs in, legs out," suggests that cats correct their falling trajectory by first extending their hind limbs before retracting them, using a sequential twist of their upper and then lower trunk to gain the proper posture while in free fall. The second model, "tuck and turn," suggests that cats turn their upper and lower bodies in simultaneous juxtaposed movements. [...]
The researchers found that the feline spine was extremely flexible in the upper thoracic vertebrae, but stiffer and heavier in the lower lumbar vertebrae. The discovery matches video evidence showing the cats first turn their front legs, and then their lower legs. The results suggest the cat quickly spins its flexible upper torso to face the ground, allowing it to see so that it can correctly twist the rest of its body to match. "The thoracic spine of the cat can rotate like our neck," Dr. Higurashi said.
Experiments on the spine show the upper vertebrae can twist an astounding 360 degrees, he says, which helps cats make these correcting movements with ease. The results are consistent with the "legs in, legs out" model, but definitively determining which model is correct will take more work, Dr. Higurashi says. The results also yielded another discovery: Cats, like many animals, appear to have a right-side bias. One of the dropped cats corrected itself by turning to the right eight out of eight times, while the other turned right six out of eight times.
Re:Seems like a waste of time and money (Score:4, Interesting)
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Yeah, I distinctly remember seeing sequences of photos taken as a cat was falling from a certain height, ready to absorb the landing impact well before hitting the ground.
Been studied before (Score:2)
https://www.webmd.com/pets/cat... [webmd.com]
Cats falling from 1 to 2 stories heights have higher injury rates than cats falling from higher distances.
Some day, if we can read cat minds scientists may discover that a short "DAAAAAMMMMMMM" results in more injuries than a much longer "DAAAAAAA (expand 20 times) AAAAAMMMMM!"
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I'm pretty sure this was a solved problem when I was a kid and that's been a long while now.
Indeed. The first rigorous study was by the French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey around 1894, using high-speed photography.
There is also a story about Thomas Edison and Henry Ford doing some experiments together, but it's likely apocryphal.
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About 40 years ago a friend of mine stated that this problem had been solved and that slow motion photography proved that the cat used its tail to right itself. I actually had a tailless cat nearby (lost it in an accident with a car) which I retrieved, held out in front of him about two feet off the ground, and let go. It landed on its feet.
What's curious is how long this has been "studied" and how many different theories there have been! [wikipedia.org]
Re: Seems like a waste of time and money (Score:2)
Re:Seems like a waste of time and money (Score:5, Insightful)
I see an Ig Nobel Prize in this researcher's future.
Re:Seems like a waste of time and money (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes but now you will have to go to Europe to see the awards presented.
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Yes but now you will have to go to Europe to see the awards presented.
Don't threaten me with more of a good time.
Re: Seems like a waste of time and money (Score:1)
Just Gemini it (Score:2)
Re: Just Gemini it (Score:4, Insightful)
Did it figure it out on its own or did it do the fetch-and-generate a dumbed-down answer it is programmed to do?
Re: Just Gemini it (Score:2)
Indeed, I've no idea how AI works, as it doesn't exist yet. Maybe some day soon.
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Re: Just Gemini it (Score:4, Informative)
Apparently, you also have no idea how the English language works.
Words are defined by popular use, not some technical authority. And, based on that, what we have now qualifies as "AI". So, AI does, in fact, exist.
You are trying to impose some rule that eliminates the popular broad and fuzzy definition of AI and replaces it with greater stringency, as would better be captured by such words as "machine intelligence" or "synthetic intelligence." But, seeing as how you don't get to control the English language, your efforts fail.
To put it directly, in this context "artificial" means "fake". AI is "fake intelligence." It is not actually intelligent. And, it does not need to actually be intelligent in order to qualify as "AI".
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Nope, I am still not guilty. Let's check out a dictionary [merriam-webster.com] for guidance.
Did you catch that? This definition uses the word "imitate." An imitation of something is not a real version of something. Imitation is fakery. "Fake" is an accurate description. And no actual intelligence is required to meet this definition.
That's why I specifically said "in this context" the word artificial means "fake."
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You're fond of Merriam-Webster, so let's continue:
"Fake" implies an intent to deceive. The creators of AI systems are not trying to pass them off as anything but AI, so they're not trying to deceive anyone. And I think your position would be that AI is incapable of deception, so AI itself is not the source of any fakery.
In short, something can be
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"Artificial" can also mean "fake," as per the quote from the dictionary that I posted in response to an AC on this thread.
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And yet you laugh when someone identifies as an attack helicopter. If everyone goes along with it, is the person really an attack helicopter or is the definition of attack helicopter worthless at that point and we have to find new words to describe a vehicle with rotary blades and guns?
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Except he appears to know more about it than you since LLMs summarising things they are fed is precisely how they work. It managed to sumarise your question to such a dumbed down way that you failed to notice that nothing in its answer actually was related to the research in question.
Gemini tells you they flex their spines. This study was about how flexibles their spines actually are and quantifying the results to determine which of several competing movement models was right. This included previously unkno
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what happened when you asked it how flexible their spine is, and what studies address this issue?
You get the answer "very", a and bunch of references to articles which don't give a number.
When you ask for a number, you get the answer in TFS and a link to a story discussing this paper.
All the while none of that was in your original post either. You really are too dumb to use AI.
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A cat-astrophe... (Score:5, Informative)
A cat-astrophe...this was researched by NASA and the United States Air Force as this Youtube! video explains...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The cat's meow...or paw-fectly.
--JoshK.
I'll just leave this here. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: I'll just leave this here. (Score:2)
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This... is insanely good. WTF is this.
Or, in the parlance of the youth, "What is this I don't even"
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Just a very old joke in a short film form.
What about dogs? They do it too? (Score:2)
Don't dogs also do this? Albeit maybe slower than cats? If you release a god back down, it doesn't just fall, it definitely twists so that it is mostly paws down when landing (I have done this over water with a dog who likes being in water). I would guess that this is something that fourlegged animals in general do, isn't it? At least predator type animals, maybe not deer or cows, because they are never climbing stuff.
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Dogs will in fact not do this. Multiple YT videos show dogs failing at this, to hilarious effect.
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Broken cat? (Score:2)
A friend and I were discussing this very effect one Christmas in his three cat house. He demonstrated by scooping up a cat that (unfortunately for it) was at his feet, holding it upside down at shoulder height, and releasing it. The cat landed flat on its back, stretched like it didn't give a damn, and then ran off. I think one of the reasons God made cats is to goof on us.
Re:Broken cat? (Score:5, Informative)
stretched like it didn't give a damn, and then ran off.
(Your friend is an ahole). Cats hide their pain so they don't signal themselves as an easy prey. If the cat had been taken up and down normally without pain, it would not have felt the need to run off.
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Cats need height to properly turn around. They can't just fall from any height and land on their feet - too low and there's not enough t
And This Is Where I Stopped Reading (Score:4, Informative)
the anatomy of the cat has not been studied in detail, explains Yasuo Higurashi
What utter nonsense. Cat anatomy has been thoroughly studied and is well understood. Biologists and veterinary medicine know cats very well. Even high school students dissect and study cat anatomy in their science and biology classes.
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Confirmation! Left handed people are trouble! (Score:2)
In case you wonder (Score:2)
cats have a very flexible segment of their spines
That's the one that lets them lick their own butt.
The Buttered Cat Paradox (Score:4, Funny)
Since toast always falls buttered side down, what happens if you strap a slice of toast [wikipedia.org] to a cat's back?
Re: The Buttered Cat Paradox (Score:3)
Since SchrÃdinger it has been known that cats can exist in multiple states simultaneously. It follows that the cat simply lands in a superposition of the two required orientations and, while perhaps a little confused, is happy that neither of its states involve being dead in a box.
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Further tests, are you kidding? (Score:2)
No cat will get along with this. How will you get them to sign a waiver? "being dropped from varying heights...from a moving vehicle"...
Cat points to dog with its paw, as if to say, "What about him---he'll do it for a treat"
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(Yeah, that was awful. Feel free to hate me for it.)
Why more study, no high speed cameras? (Score:1)
It's To Counteract– (Score:2)
–the buttered toast strapped to the cat's back.
Pics please! (Score:2)
The internet needs more cat pictures!
Redundant Study is Needless Cruelty (Score:2)
Reaction wheels (Score:2)
How to test (Score:2)
The best way to test this is to throw thousands of NYC cats off the Empire State Building, and see how they land on their feet.
Take (Score:1)
That's not a fkn "take" - a "take" is someone making a rhetorical claim without rigorous backing by theory and empirical data