# Do cats understand gravity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2016, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001 "2016-03-24T01:28:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/21 "2016-03-24T13:45:09Z")
If the OP’s neighbor is teaching their cats tensor calculus, maybe they can help me teach my cats to stop vomiting on my pillow? Seriously, one hard fall within the kitten learning period teaches them all they need to know about gravity. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/22 "2016-03-24T15:15:18Z")
My wife disagrees with me that cats are better at climbing up than climbing down. As evidence, I present the many cats who get stuck in trees (including one my cousin had in her back yard recently for a week, stuck 200 feet up in a tree growing out of a swamp, until she found the owner, who called a tree trimming place to help get it down). As her evidence, she showed us our cat in our (much smaller) back yard tree, and he made it down. Our backs were turned though, so I’m not sure if he climbed down or just jumped. Are cats especially poor at climbing downwards? Do they prefer to jump and just stay where they’re at if they can’t? What accounts for the trope of cats stuck in trees and firefighters saving them? ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/23 "2016-03-24T15:35:43Z")
It’s ALWAYS harder to climb back down than to climb up. You’ve evidently never done any tree or rock climbing, or you would know that. For one thing, on the way back down, your eyes are much farther away from the initial points of contact, so it’s harder to judge distances. This is true for cats as well as humans. It seems that you’ve never really paid close attention to your cats. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/24 "2016-03-24T15:41:59Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Are cats especially poor at climbing downwards? Do they prefer to jump and just stay where they’re at if they can’t? What accounts for the trope of cats stuck in trees and firefighters saving them? I’ve witnessed 3 or 4 times in my life when a cat (generally a young cat/older kitten) has been stuck in a tree and had to be helped (or more like “encouraged”) down. It’s a trope because it happens. Once I saw a fire truck called for a cat stuck in a tree across from my house because it was REALLY high up there and nobody had a ladder that tall. All the other times involved a cat not as high and therefore a regular ladder was enough. Cats climbing down either have to do it head-down, or without being able to see where they’re going. Either case is scarier than climbing up. It’s the same with people, I’m always more nervous going down a tree or ladder than up. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/25 "2016-03-24T15:55:02Z")
And yet, it’s still really, really rare for cats to get stuck in trees. Most of the time when a cat stays in a tree, it’s just because that’s where the cat wants to be. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/26 "2016-03-24T15:57:05Z")
Maybe I’m just good at climbing trees, but I have never had any trouble getting down from anywhere I’ve been able to get up to. It might be different if I climbed out of a window into the top of the tree, so I didn’t have familiarity with the route down, but if I climbed up, I can always go back down the way I came. And the few times I’ve done rock climbing (in a gym only), I just rappelled down. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/27 "2016-03-24T16:08:09Z")
Here in Seattle it’s [people](http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0WP2M8) that have problems with trees. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/28 "2016-03-24T16:49:21Z")
Here is the definitive answer regarding cats & gravity. Caution, may be NSFW if your coworkers are real prudes - contains bad word. [http://s564.photobucket.com/user/Trygolyte/media/physics-cat.jpg.html?o=4](http://s564.photobucket.com/user/Trygolyte/media/physics-cat.jpg.html?o=4) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/29 "2016-03-24T16:53:16Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > It’s ALWAYS harder to climb back down than to climb up. You’ve evidently never done any tree or rock climbing, or you would know that. > > For one thing, on the way back down, your eyes are much farther away from the initial points of contact, so it’s harder to judge distances. This is true for cats as well as humans. It seems that you’ve never really paid close attention to your cats. Another point with cats is, their claws curve backwards, which makes for great purchase going up, but is exactly wrong for going down. Going down either head or tail first, they either actively resist the direction of travel, or are much less secure. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/30 "2016-03-24T17:11:37Z")
> [@TheSundial](#): > > If you use a laser pointer to play with a cat they probably think it’s an insect or an animal and have no idea it’s a laser or what a laser is. > > When the cat is on the roof and looks down the ground is far away. Do they understand the dynamics of that though? or just that the ground is far away? I think all the cat understands is that it needs to be on a surface to go up and down and not that a higher height means more pain. Well, they must have some understanding of it or they’d jump out of trees and off houses with the same casual indifference that they jump off off sofas and tables. They do not do so, however, or else they’d all be dead. So I’d have to presume that, like most terrestrial mammals, they understand long drops can hurt. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/31 "2016-03-24T17:49:25Z")
All the cats I’ve lived with have, in fact, jumped out of trees and off of houses with nearly the same casual indifference as jumping off sofas and tables. And that includes the one that only had two functional legs. They never got injured from it. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/32 "2016-03-24T18:43:55Z")
I would assume that all living creatures have a sense or up and down, which are a fundamental manifestation of gravity. Even plants typically grow upward, even ignoring the positioning of grow lights, and “aware” (in plant language) of their rigid structure which is designed to neutralize gravity. Cats jump off beds all the time, but rarely from from high perches, so they must intuitively have a sense that falling from a great height is not in their best interests. This would suggest an inborn anticipation of acceleration and its downside potential. But they do not know much about square roots, so they are just making acceleration judgments from the seat of their pants. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/33 "2016-03-24T19:25:21Z")
My cat routinely climbs on top of the house. It is very clear to us that she is not capable or confident of her ability to get down on her own. Instead, she cries for us to come and rescue her. When we attempt to reach up and grab her, it is very obvious that she wants to be down but has a great fear of being too close to the edge. I don’t know exactly what their thinking process is, but it is clear to me that she understands falling is a bad thing. The only real mystery is why she keeps going up there in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/34 "2016-03-25T03:06:34Z")
> [@](#): > > My cat routinely climbs on top of the house. It is very clear to us that she is not capable or confident of her ability to get down on her own. Instead, she cries for us to come and rescue her. When we attempt to reach up and grab her, it is very obvious that she wants to be down but has a great fear of being too close to the edge. > > I don’t know exactly what their thinking process is, but it is clear to me that she understands falling is a bad thing. The only real mystery is why she keeps going up there in the first place. so she can make you come rescue her. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/35 "2016-03-25T05:17:02Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > _We_ don’t understand gravity. **Are cats supposed to be some quantum physics geniuses?** 😛 They are. [Prior thread on this.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=739037) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/36 "2016-03-25T10:26:00Z")
Cats are aware of Gravity, but they do not approve. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/37 "2016-03-25T10:29:05Z")
[Data point.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VkGctpu214) ---
**Author:** ![guitario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@guitario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guitario)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/38 "2016-03-25T12:20:13Z")
While I agree that cats do sometimes get stuck in trees and other tall places - but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t get down on their own. Cat’s are clever animals, and have learnt how to gain attention of humans - they wait to be rescued because they are manipulative little bastards. If we don’t help… eventually that cat will get very hungry/cold/tired and find a way to get back down on its own accord. Most animals have a built in survival instinct that will kick in when its needed. Stick a human being up on a 10th floor ledge, with no way back inside - and providing they are physically capable, there will come a point when they have no choice but to embrace their inner Spiderman and figure it out for themselves… for better or worse… Cats do understand gravity, and definitely have a built in fear of high places. You can test this out for yourself by picking up a 6 week old kitten, putting it on your shoulder, and walk around. That pain you feel is their claws digging in to your skin for dear life… ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/39 "2016-03-25T23:40:51Z")
My Himalayan has little short legs, he’s more of a cat-like animal than an actual cat. He can jump wonderfully high but jumps down off of things and lands like a bag of hammers with a huge thud. I’m afraid he’s going to get arthritis, so I help him down when I can. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001/40 "2016-03-26T19:18:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > All the cats I’ve lived with have, in fact, jumped out of trees and off of houses with nearly the same casual indifference as jumping off sofas and tables. And that includes the one that only had two functional legs. They never got injured from it. Nice point, but unverifiable–“casual indifference” and “grim silent brief prayer to Cat Deity of future sacrifice if I can just make it through this jump” might look quite the same. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-understand-gravity/750001.md?page=3)