CAT was Re: Salt Lake City?

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

I forgot to mention that, when very young -- before I understood angular
momentum (do I yet?) -- I experimented on our cat.  I found (memory) that
only a few inches were necessary for the cat to successfully land on her
feet.  I held the forepaws with my left hand, etc.

Just tried this on our adolescent cat, Toc.  Can't find our arthritic one,
Xochitl.

report later.

For a diagram, page search: cat;
http://web.hep.uiuc.edu/home/g-gollin/dance/dance_physics.html

bc

Bernard Cleyet wrote:

> I remember a "Scientific American"  article on this.  My search resulted
> immediately in a more recent discussion.
>
> http://www.wonderquest.com/cat-falling.htm
>
> bc  who will attempt to find the article he remembers
>
> p.s. he remembers the article, as above does, discussed the problem of
> conservation of angular momentum.
>
> Ludwik Kowalski wrote:
>
> > There was an article in The Physics Teacher, perhaps ten years
> > ago, about a mechanical model of a cat dropped in the legs-up
> > position.  The cat always manages to land in the legs-down

cut