Monday, 14 March 2016

Cat Fact #3! Cheetahs are pretty amazing.

Cheetah can run at a top speed of 120km/h for around sixty seconds.

Cheetah are pretty amazing. Their incredible speed, acceleration, and cornering abilities were discussed thoroughly in Cat Fact #1, but there's something I left out there – because Cheetahs are also very, very smart, and very, very friendly, if they think you're worth the friendship.

This means that in addition to being the absolute fastest land mammal, cheetahs also have the most playful personality of the big cats. They are trainable in much the same way as a dog is, and have similar personalities to dog breeds like labradors and golden retrievers. They will fetch a thrown stick and, if they trust you, will even allow you to lead them about by hooking a finger behind their dewteeth - which are larger teeth in a similar position to our canines.

There are even reported cases of rangers in Africa befriending Cheetah, and going on to train them to help hunt poachers. On a command, they'll sprint full-bore, and bring down the evil-doers, and you don't have to wonder where DC got the idea for The Flash. But don't go thinking Cheetahs are domesticatable – they'll hang out with you, but on their turf, on their terms. Cheetah have been known to make friendly pets for millionaires – but these are Cheetah who were born and raised in captivity, and know nothing about the wild. And it's not even a perfect success rate.


They may be friendly, but they're not tame.

Thursday, 10 March 2016

Cat Fact #2! Cats: the masters of Newtonian physics



There is a part of Newtonian physics that dictates that an object with three different axes of symmetry will tumble when rotating about the axis of middle length. It is very well explained here, but I'll give you the gist of it. Find a book, a phone, or some other rectangular, three-dimensional object, with a different length to each of those three dimensions. Toss it, spinning, into the air and catch it. Try spinning it a different way. There are three axes of symmetry to spin that object around (because diagonals don't count), so try the last way.

You should find that there are two ways to spin the object that make it easy to catch, and one that makes it tricky. That's because with three axes of different lengths, the object always wants to spin on the longest or the shortest axis. Don't ask me why, I'm no physicist - ask the guy who wrote the linked post. All I can tell you is that it's true, because when you try to spin the object about the middle-sized axis, it also tumbles on one of the other axes, making it difficult to catch. Which is a fun wee fact to whip out at parties or picnics or the library as you juggle the books.

It's also responsible for the gif of the dancing handle on the ISS that we all saw get famous for fifteen minutes in 2015.



So how is that a cat fact? Well, since we all have to acknowledge that cats are our superiors, we can fully understand and agree that they have an innate understanding of Newtonian physics and will certainly use this to their own advantage, and if possible, our detriment. When a cat is falling, it instinctively arches its spine to form itself into a falling shape with three axes of different lengths, and therefore tumbles on its third axis, and thus lands on its feet every time. We've tested this... extensively... over the years. As far back as pre-video.



Bonus fact!


When you are in zero-gravity (either while in space or falling at the same velocity as your surroundings), the prevalent feeling is of a constant fall. Astronauts need to get used to it, since they need to be calm and collected even in panic-situations while in space, so they train on the vomit comet, which flies in a parabolic shape, simulating zero-gravity for around 40 seconds at a time. The vomit comet is also used for various scientific research pursuits, so one day, knowing the above fact about cats, they took one aboard. Here's how it reacts.


Tuesday, 8 March 2016

Cat Fact #1! Kitty Claws – Specifically, the Cheetah's.

A cheetah's claws are remarkable blunt, because they are not fully retractable.


There is only one kind of cat that cannot retract its claws - the Cheetah. This is because for a cheetah, that's really not the point. They rely on their speed and their teeth rather than power and claws to take down their prey. Daquan and his friends may go from 0 to 100 real quick, but a cheetah can go from 0 to 60MPH (96 KM/H) in three seconds, and reach a top recorded speed of 75 MPH (120 KM/H). As anyone involved with performance vehicles will tell you, to get acceleration you need an engine capable of doing it, and you need traction. This is where the Cheetah's claws come in - claws dig into the ground, giving near-perfect traction for acceleration and cornering.

The end result is that this bluntens their claws in a similar way to a dog's. As a side-effect, they are unable to climb trees vertically as many other cats (big and small) do.

When a Cheetah hunts, it spends 95% of its time almost totally immobile, moving only stealthily and trying to remain unseen. When it spots a prey animal it thinks it can bring down, it makes a burst of energy and sprints after it. They need to be fairly sure of success, since this is going to cost a huge amount of energy - to go back to the performance cars analogy, a top fuel dragster will go through five gallons of fuel over a very short race - normally only a quarter mile (402m), completed in 4.9 seconds. And it's a very short race for the Cheetah too, since most of its prey is caught or given up on within a minute.

The traction of the Cheetah isn't just used for speed and acceleration of course - Cheetah have to be able to follow their prey, and their preferred prey types, antelopes and gazelles and the like, are renowned for gracefulness and nimbleness. So when their prey turns a sixty-degree corner at forty miles an hour, it wouldn't do for the Cheetah to be left sliding sideways through the dust. Claws dig in here as well, the long tail swings around as a counterbalance, and dinner doesn't get away.

On the other hand, there's the dewclaw, which is fully retractable, and is used for the same purposes as you would expect - it comes out of the top of their paw instead of the front, between their toes. Slightly larger than its other claws, the dewclaw isn't always used in combat, but when it is, it's deadly.

A cheetah's deqclaw is fully retractable and not used for traction - therefore it remains sharp.

About Me

I write and research a new Cat Fact every day, not in that order.