Cats without a tail can also do this. This is because a cat mostly moves its hind legs and does not use much angular momentum to set itself up for landing. So a tail is not really needed for this skill.
Using this righting reflex, cats can often land without injury. But, this is not always true, since cats can still break bones or die from extreme falls.
In a 1987 study, written in the "Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association", 132 cats were looked at after having fallen from buildings. The injuries per cat were more, depending on the height fallen; up to seven stories high. Above seven stories, the injuries were less. The study authors think that after falling five stories, the cats reached terminal velocity. At that time, the cats relaxed and spread their bodies to increase drag.
First, cats decide which is up or down, by looking to see or by using senses in the inner ear. Then, cats manage to twist themselves to face downward, without ever changing their angular momentum. They do this in these steps:
If the cat is not flexible enough (able to bend easily), it may need to do steps two and three again in order to completely right itself.
Besides this righting reflex, cats have body features that help keep them safe in a fall. Their small size, light bones, and thick fur decrease their terminal velocity. Also, once righted they may also spread out their body to increase drag and slow how fast they are falling. They also relax as they fall, which protects them some when they land.
Lauren Nelson
Lauren Nelson (born November 26, 1986) is an American beauty queen from Lawton, Oklahoma. She was Miss America 2007. Before that, she was Miss Oklahoma 2006.
Buttered cat paradox
The buttered cat paradox is a popular joke based on putting two adages (sayings) together to make them funny:
The paradox happens when one asks this question: What would happen if one attached a piece of buttered toast (butter side up) to the back of a cat, then dropped the cat from a large height?
In reality, cats can turn themselves right side up in mid-air if they should fall upside-down. This is named the cat righting reflex. This reflex lets them land on their feet if dropped from high enough up (about ). Toast, not being alive, does not have the ability to turn itself over. Nor does it want to, since it cannot think.
Toast usually lands on the floor butter-side-down. This is because of how it is dropped from a table. As the toast falls from the table, it rotates or turns. Using the average speed of rotation for a slice of toast as it falls from the table and the usual height of a table, a slice of toast that began butter-side-up on the table will land butter-side-down on the floor 81% of the time. This is because the buttered side is heavier. When an object has a heavy and light side, in most cases it will fall heavy side first.
Domestic cats usually weigh between . A regular slice of bread weighs only one ounce and a pat of butter about one fourth ounce. So attaching a very small piece of toast with butter to a much larger cat would hardly have any effect on how the cat would move.
Annefleur Kalvenhaar
Annefleur Kalvenhaar (10 June 1994 – 23 August 2014) was a Dutch cyclist and mountain biker. She won the European Cyclo-cross Championships in 2013. She began her career at the age of 13. She participated for the first time in a World Cup in 2012. In Houffalize and La Bresse she finished second place in the top 10. She was born in Wierden, Netherlands.
Kalvenhaar died in Grenoble, France due to an accident during a XCE race in Meribel, France, aged 20.
Wierden
Wierden is a town in Overijssel, eastern Netherlands. The population was 23,932 in 2011. The mayor of Wierden is Henk Robben.
Treadmill
A treadmill is a device for walking or running, while staying in the same place. Before there was steam power, such treadmills were used to power machines. That way, the work of animals or people could be used in the machines. Such treadmills were also used as a form of punishment in prisons.
Chapelle royale de Dreux
The Royal Chapel of Dreux () is a the traditional resting place for members of the royal House of Orléans. It is located in the town of Dreux in France.
The land on which the chapel was built on was owned by the famously wealthy Duke of Penthièvre whose daughter Marie Adélaïde married the Duke of Orléans in 1769. Following the death of the Duke of Penthièvre his daughter inherited a majority of his vast estates including the land of Dreux. The Orléans family later used the chapel there as their own personal burial place following the reign of Louis Philippe I.
Colombiana
Colombiana is a 2011 French crime drama action movie set in Bogotá and Chicago. Zoe Saldana plays Cataleya, a hired killer whose parents are murdered when she is a child, so she seeks revenge. Cliff Curtis plays Emilio.
This movie got mixed reviews from critics. It made almost $61 million.
Louis Philippe I
Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was the second person to have the title King of the French. Following the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, France became a republic. He spent 21 years in exile before being made king after the abdication of Charles X of France in 1830. His relatively short reign (1830–1848) was known as the July Monarchy. Louis-Philippe promoted friendship with Great Britain. He sponsored colonialism, notably the conquest of Algeria. His popularity faded quickly when French troops fired on demonstrators. This set off the French Revolution of 1848 causing Louis Philippe to flee to England as "Mr. Smith". He lived out his life in exile in England. His eldest son and heir died before succeeding him. This brought the Kingdom of the French to an end.
Born at the Palais Royal in Paris he was named Louis Philippe d'Orléans, Louis Philippe in honour of his father. His parents were the Duke and Duchess of Orléans. One of the most senior members of the French royal court. He was born a Prince of the blood which entitled him to be addressed as "His Serene Highness". From birth he was given the title of Duke of Valois one of his fathers subsidiary titles. He was the eldest of four children born to the duke and duchess. He was a member of the House of Orléans, itself a cadet branch of the ruling House of Bourbon. The two branches were both directly descended from Louis XIV and were often in competition with one another.
His education was carried out by Madame de Genlis who was later his fathers mistress. It was her that instilled a fairly liberal attitude within the young prince. When Louis Philippe's grandfather died in 1785, his father succeeded him as Duke of Orléans and Louis Philippe succeeded his father as Duke of Chartres.
His parents had a strained marriage the Duke was famous for his many extramarital affairs and his wife just quietly accepted his infidelity. She was a notoriously religious woman who relished watching her children grow up. Louis Philippe was the eldest of four children born to the couple. Louis Philippe was very close to his brother, the younger Duke of Montpensier.
In 1792 he joined the French army and went to fight in Austria. But in April 1793 he deserted. He could not return to France so he found work as a teacher in Switzerland. He then went to live in Sweden. After that he lived in the United States and finally he moved to England.
After the abdication of Napoleon in 1814, Louis Philippe returned to France. King Louis XVIII gave him back his Orléans estates.
In 1808, proposed to Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George III of the United Kingdom. His Catholicism and the opposition of her mother Queen Charlotte meant the princess reluctantly declined the offer.
In 1809, Louis Philippe married Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, daughter of King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Maria Carolina of Austria. They had ten children. Maria Amalia was also a niece of the late Queen Marie Antoinette.