Cats and Physics.

Cats aren’t only known for surviving huge falls but also for always landing feet first. It is the combination of cats being able to rotate onto their bellies and then increase their drag that allows them to survive such dramatic falls.

So how are cats able to rotate mid free fall without defying the law of conservation of angular momentum?

In a split second a falling cat instinctively makes the decision to arch its back. This clever more splits the axis of rotation from which the cat is spinning. Next the cat draws its front legs in while stretching its back legs out. This creates different angular speeds allowing the cat to rotate on its belly!