I have a hypothesis about the physics of cats, especially house cats.
Observations:
I have observed a cat jump straight up, then step onto its destination.
I have observed a kitten jump into a bathtub that had a good foot of water in it, jump back out, and only the bottom of its feet were wet.
I have experienced (numerous times) having a cat in my lap get heavier and heavier, especially if part of its body is impeding my ability to type, read, etc.
My hypothesis: Cats can move their weight, not just in space, but in time (over a smallish time frame)
So when they are in your lap, getting heavier and heavier, they are actually releasing past diverted weigh or taking future weight into themselves, so they can do the light leaps (plus having the side benefit of weighing you down).
This also explains why cats knock things off of desks and shelves. If you watch them do this, you will note a rather quizzical look in their eyes. They’re really thinking “Huh, it fell the same way this time as last time. Can’t it move its weight around?”
Any comments or examples of cats that have shown this phenomenon? Requisite cat picture
These are good questions, but what I want to know is how they do that fourth-dimension thing. Just yesterday I was in my bedroom doing a little (very little) tidying up and our cat literally just *appeared *by my side. And then she very clearly said, “Meh-eh!” What does it all mean?
Though when the local 18-pounder landed in a tub 1/4 full of water last week, more than just his feet got wet. He wasn’t happy with my laughter. I have a pic of him in said tub (empty, though).
And yet, if they get locked in a room, they can’t get out again! I haven’t quite got that one worked out yet - any observations?
I’ll add one.
The first time we took Amira to the vet, we got her into the carrier, then went to wash the blood off. When we got back out, she was sitting by the carrier giving us a look like “Carrier, what carrier? Oh, that? Where did that come from?”
Unless that cat is still locked in that room then you’ve seem it demonstrate another power, mind control over humans. When that cat was ready to get out it made you come open the door.
Cats are nothing more than a macroscopic collection of interacting quantum systems (or particles). However, cats have developed a rather fine degree of control over the probabilities of their various superposed states.
Take for example the above post by MLS about the cat that suddenly appeared. Actually, that is just a quantum tunneling effect that could happen to any cat, any time, anywhere, but only with (normally) very low probability. What the cat seems able to do is alter the probability density functions to make this much more probable, and therefore it will actually happen more often.
The other posts in this thread are similar. The one about the cat that jumps into the tub with water then jumps out with only the bottoms of its feet wet can also be explained straightforwardly as a sequence of quantum events, over which the cat can exercise some control.
Bear in mind, of course, that for each of these observations, there suddenly springs into existence a collection of alternate universes, in each one of which a different one of the possible outcomes has happened.
My neighbor is building a cage of chicken wire on a wooden scaffolding to put over his plantings to keep the cats out. But that will be an easy one for the cats to defeat. Cats will have no trouble at all quantum tunneling right through a mere sheet of chicken wire.
I think the OP may be on to something.
I’ve observed my cats on several occasions, when they are about to jump on a counter top, the area they are about to jump to is full of obstacles that could be problematic for the cat should he land on them. The thing is, I can see these obstacle from my point of view, but the cat can’t, because of his relative low position on the floor. He wont actually see these obstacles until he’s already launched himself into the air. And by then, one would think it was too late to make any course changes, and the cat would unsuspectingly land on the problemed obstacles. But they never do, they are some how able to make course corrections in mid air. And they do so in a split second.
I like this theory. My cat unfailingly puts herself where I’m about to sit down right before I do so…I’d been ascribing that to malign telepathy, but I think your theory explains it much better - she simply shifts to my seat as I approach it!
That wouldn’t work because the cats will only pass through the slit when you’re not watching…
So cats are quantum, which would also explain their affinity for strings, and the fact they expel glueballs (or densely entangled “hairballs”). Well, that’s what they feel like when you step on them at 2 AM.
Actually, the cat will come right up to the slit, stop right at the threshold of the slit and then meow at you for ten minutes while you wait patiently for the cat to pass through so you can close the damn experiment.
Let’s try to avoid “bon mots” like this one…because they really aren’t all as witty as you think they may be. They actually just come across fairly threadshit-ty.
I had a dog once who pulled the same walking-on-water trick. We were visiting some cousins who had a pond, and figured that we ought to teach him to swim (he was part retriever, so it should come naturally to him). We took him out on the pond on a raft, and pushed him in. When he reached the shore, his back legs were wet up to the knees, his front legs up to the wrists, and his belly was completely dry.
Actually, OUR cats will go up to the slits, then stick their paws through and try to play with things on the other side. No need to pass through at all, or to try to decide which one they’ll pass through.
Cats only pass through slits if they want to. And they may go around, if it suits them.
Occasionally, my cat gets lost between dimensions. He opens his mouth to miaow, but nothing comes out - he’s miaow-ing in the 4th dimension!
However, he quickly realizes this and re-aligns the quantum fields, and the second half of the miaow arrives - but very faint and indistinct, since it has lost some potency during the trans-dimensional shift.
I’m never letting him near a healing crystal - he’d probably explodify the entire universe.
I thought it was incredibly fascinating when I took one of our indoor cats outside (the one most amenable/obnoxious about it) when it had snowed heavily. His front paw steps. Then he steps forward again, while his hind paw lands exactly where the front paw just was. In the snow it was a lot more apparent.
For OP: why do they always sit on papers, particularly if you are currently using/reading them? Something eldritch, right?
