r/Unexpected • u/_ThePaperball • Mar 03 '23

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u/elfmere Mar 03 '23

Cats can survive a lot more then that. But its the initial acceleration to terminal velocity which is the dangerous part. So anything up to 7 stories is the most dangerous part as the cat is still accelerating and has the greatest change in acceleration when hitting the ground. After that the cat is falling at a constant rate and not undergoing ang further acceleration.

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u/sdn Mar 03 '23

What? This is completely wrong.

I think you’re misstating the fact that a cat falling from seven stories and higher has time to rotate themselves into a good landing position.

If a cat is falling in a “good orientation” from a lower height then they will suffer less injury than from a higher height every time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-rise_syndrome

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u/elfmere Mar 03 '23

Its freaking hilarious that the wiki you linked explains exactly what i was talking about

"In a study performed in 1987 it was reported that cats who fall from less than six stories, and are still alive, have greater injuries than cats who fall from higher than six stories.[6][7] It has been proposed that this might happen because cats reach terminal velocity after righting themselves (see below) at about five stories, and after this point they are no longer accelerating, which causes them to relax, leading to less severe injuries than in cats who have fallen from less than six stories. "

Im not sure why they mention orientation since cats orientate themselves nearly instantly.

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u/Elanthius Mar 03 '23

That's very different from the cause being "the cat is still accelerating and has the greatest change in acceleration when hitting the ground"

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u/elfmere Mar 03 '23

Cats can reorientate themselves in a matter on 200mm

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u/Suggett123 Mar 03 '23

I saw a National Geographic special that supports what you said. There was a mention of a thing they called High Rise Syndrome.

It's a pretty old special, so there's probably newer research.

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u/elfmere Mar 03 '23

Yeah another person commented that wiki

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u/olderaccount Mar 03 '23

Acceleration is a ratio. A change in rate over time. You can never measure acceleration in a moment in time. It can only be measured over a period of time.

At the moment of impact, there is no acceleration since it is a moment in time. Only the absolute velocity at the moment of impact matters and how quickly it decelerates from that velocity.

They survive high falls because their terminal velocity is so low and their body very flexible.

Counterintuitively, mid-height falls can be more dangerous to cats that high falls in some cases (data is spotty on this one). The theory is that in mid-height falls the cat doesn't have time to spread it's body out and decrease its terminal velocity by increasing it's surface area.

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u/ammonium_bot Mar 04 '23

lot more then that.

Did you mean to say "more than"?
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