More Facts

While conducting the research for this site, I found some resources that, while entertaining and informative, were not really physics-focused. I imagine that if you read all of this that you may be someone who likes cats and is thus similarly interested in why they do the things they do. Behold!

How Cats Purr

All cats purr, even the big cats. The closest people can get is rolling their r's, which does not work the same way and only works while exhaling. Cats can purr inhaling or exhaling because what they are doing is opening and closing their vocal cords several times per second. Inhaled or exhaled air hits the closed vocal cords like a drum.

How Kittens Go From Clueless to Cute

Cat videos are great. Kitten videos are extra great. Educational kitten videos? Still great! PBS's Deep Look series "explores big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small," and they have an episode on kitten development.

A few key points:

• Kittens are "altricial" meaning they haven't finished developing yet.
  • Kittens are born with their eyes shut and ears folded
  • Kittens need constant warmth to survive and must be fed every few hours
  • Kittens need stimulation from their mothers in order to go to the bathroom
• Precocial animals are born at a later stage of development and can already move about
• People are "secondarily altricial" because we have all our senses but are still pretty helpless.