Just watched my cat spring up onto one of the higher window sills of my house, amazed by how effortless it looks. I calculate it as the equivelent of a man jumping onto a ledge eightenn feet above him. How can my cat make this leap? What is the record for highest feline leap? If such a thing exists, of course…
This has been discussed at length. The board’s search function seems to be down so I can’t find you the thread I’m thinking of. It was a very hotly debated issue.
It’s all power to weight ratios, fleas can do even better, elephants not so much.
The search function is back up but I am just tearing (what’s left of) my hair out trying to find the thread in question. I know it was about animals jumping. I know that there was a substantial body of agreement that physics puts pretty severe constraints on jumping heights. I know the thread involved a fairly heated debate on cats and whether they could actually jump as high as they appear to. I seem to recall that one side of the debate said that, unassisted, cats could only jump about as high as people but that they appeared to jump higher because they tend to (very smoothly) give themselves a surruptitious boost off the wall or tree they are jumping up. The other side of the debate hotly denied this. I know that there was a side debate upon whether the eyewitness accounts of dopers were valid cites. I thought Blake and Desmostylus were involved but I’m not completely sure.
And I just cannot find the dang thread anywhere.
Anyone got a clue?
Because their hind legs are stroooong. Leopards can jump up into a tree carrying a carcass that’s their own weight with the same effortless ease.
But whales can, and they’re a lot bigger than eles
I know, I know… 
Our gate had the paint stripped off where the cat gave herself a boost to the top so she could get in the back yard. Sometimes when they need it, or they’re not scared enough to get that extra incentive, cats will dig in again on the way up.
As I remember it, the “evidence” that a cat can only jump about 1 meter was a passing reference by a college professor, which a few Dopers inexplicably took to be a fundamental constant of the universe, as immutable as the law of conservation of energy. Pretty much everyone else was pointing out numerous instances when their own cats jumped twice this height.
One of my parents’ cats, George, was quite the jumper in his younger days. I saw him jump up to the top of the fridge, which is about 6 six verticaly. He’s declawed, so I know he didn’t climb up the fridge. Even more spectacular was a jump he made one time when we let him outside. We were outside watching him (since he’s declawed) when George decided that he wanted to jump up to a small window which is ~7 feet off the ground. He jumped up, grabbed the ledge with his front paws, and pulled himself up. Of course, in that case he didn’t actually jump the full 7 feet, but it was still pretty cool to see.
It was more than a passing reference. No one was able to provide evidence of cats doing any special leaping in a scientific measured no-cheating way.
I know I started off believing cats could jump much more and was convinced by the evidence on the other side.
Your cat can leap this high because it’s a minion of Satan, and you’re obviously a witch.
Stay put; do not attempt to flee. The wood and firestarters are on their way.
And parenthetically, I’ve seen a mouse make a vertical leap of at least a foot and a half. (Amazing what they’ll do when scared.) If you give the mouse a height of two inches standing up, that makes for a leap of nearly ten times its height. That’s like a human jumping 60 feet, for those poor at math. Take that, Mr. Blake!