In a New York veterinary clinic, a medical history of Sabrina's cat is stored, which, after falling from the 32nd floor, remained alive, getting off with a broken tooth and other minor injuries. At first glance, this fantastic story is not so surprising and not at all unique.

If a person falls from a great height, then he usually gets a serious injury - fractures of the skull and spine, severe internal bleeding may develop. Rarely anyone survives after falling from a height of several floors.

Why do cats fall well?

However, many cats easily tolerate a fall from a height that would kill another animal or person. Cats are brought to the veterinarians with nosebleeds, broken ribs and broken teeth, but at least alive. So it seems that the cat returns literally from the other world after such a fall. Knowing about the numerous cases of successful falls of cats from a height, one can really think that they have many lives.

Naturally, cats, like all other living things, have only one life at their disposal. But they are very good at falling. Why? Firstly, cats do not fall as hard as we do. They are smaller than a person in size and weigh much less, so their drop is milder. But small size is not the most important advantage. Secondly, cats fall much more successfully than small animals like poodles and rabbits.

Interesting fact: cats more often survive when they fall from a high height, and not from a small one.

How do cats fall?

A cat that starts to fall upside down will turn in the air so that it lands on all four legs. The wonderful vestibular apparatus of the cat’s inner ear allows her to instantly navigate and figure out what position she is in relation to the ground and what needs to be done to take the desired position. This process is as accurate as if the cat has a gyroscope inside. When the cat lands, the impact of falling is evenly distributed on all four legs. In addition, during the flight, the paws of the cat are bent, therefore, when in contact with the ground, the force of the impact is not transmitted directly to the brittle bones, but is distributed between more elastic muscles and joints.

Interesting fact: in the cat’s inner ear there is an excellent balance mechanism that allows it to turn in the air during a fall in such a way as to land on all four legs.

There is another surprising fact in the cat's fall: the higher the cat falls from a higher height, the more chances she has to stay alive. According to statistics from New York veterinarians, 10 percent died from cats that fell from a height of 2 to 6 floors. But only 5 percent of cats that fell from a height of 7 to 32 floors did not survive this fall. What's the matter? During the fall of the body, it receives acceleration, that is, the longer the body falls, the greater its speed. The acceleration of gravity is the same for all physical bodies and does not depend on their mass, it is 36 kilometers per hour for one second, that is, the speed of the body during a fall increases by one second by 36 kilometers per hour.This means that if the fall begins from a state of rest, then after a few seconds of flight the fall speed will reach 150-200 kilometers per hour.

If there were no atmosphere and the bodies fell in airless space, then two bodies would hit the ground at the same time, even if one of them was a feather and the other a refrigerator. But with a fall in the atmosphere, the picture changes. When a body flies a certain distance in the air, it reaches, as physicists say, a finite speed, because the friction (resistance) of the air tends to slow down the fall. How much the force of friction against air can slow down the fall of the body depends on mass and size: the fall slows down more strongly with a small mass and large size. Returning to real life, we can say that a person of average height and weight, flying 6 floors, will have a speed of fall of about 190 kilometers per hour in contact with the ground. In a cat in the same situation, the speed will be only 85 kilometers per hour.

But the cat has another completely unexpected advantage. When the cat reaches its final speed, she can allow herself to relax a bit. With a low drop, the cat does not have time to reach the final speed. But if the cat has enough time at its disposal, that is, it falls from a great height, it manages to spread its paws upon reaching the final speed. In this case, the cat's body plays the role of a parachute. And what makes a parachute, we know. The resistance below the column of air is greater, the larger the area of ​​the falling body, so the parachute - or the falling cat - greatly slows down the fall. That is the reason that the cat Sabrina was able to leave its place of fall on unbroken legs.