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The Influence Of Righting Reflex On Earth

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THE SCIENCE BEHIND; Why cats always land on their feet

Felines, such interesting animals, varying from a large ferocious lion to a meer house-cat. These creatures are powerful and very intelligent animals, with the occasionally clumsy cat. One of their most used skills is their ability to leap, jump or fall and always land on their feet. They make it look so easy. But do not be deceived, there is actually some complicated feline effort and science that goes into their graceful tumbles and leaps.

Righting Reflex, that's the basic and simple answer. The righting Reflex is a cat's ability to almost instantaneously turn itself towards the ground, allowing itself to almost always land on their feet, but there always that cat who will be distracted by a bird or something. Cats have a very flexible backbone which is what allows them to turn in midair so quickly, they have 30 vertebrae, which contributes to their suppleness, while we only have 24. …show more content…

Seen in slow motion, the second a cat begins to fall it will start determining up from down and he will rotate his head directed by his eyes and sense of balance in his ears, until he’s facing that way. His spine then follows as he arches his back, then his front paws followed by his back legs. Lastly he places his front paws close to his head to spare it from the grounds impact, the cat’s leg joints bear the impact of the weight. While falling the cat’s fall kind of resembles the one of a parachute. Kittens learn to master this skill at the age of just 7

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