# Do we still not know how cats purr?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-not-know-how-cats-purr/441831>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [March 18, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-not-know-how-cats-purr/441831 "2008-03-18T20:55:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-not-know-how-cats-purr/441831/1 "2008-03-18T20:55:05Z")

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[Link to column.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_007.html)

Wiki offers theories but no certainty. Googling gave the same results. ISTM that in today’s day of micro-this and nano-that, we should be able to determine once and for all what is causing the vibrating. Or are scientists just not that curious?

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-not-know-how-cats-purr/441831/2 "2008-03-20T13:29:21Z")

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As The Perfect Master mentioned, you can _really_ only know how a cat purrs by examining the interior of its throat while it’s purring. Cats tend not to like that. Mebbe you could do the equivalent of a PET or CAT scan (heh) on a living feline while it purred, and develop some kind of three-dimensional computer model of how purring works? I dunno. Perhaps some things were just meant to remain mysteries.

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**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2008, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-not-know-how-cats-purr/441831/3 "2008-03-21T23:46:51Z")

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Who would fund it? Running scans isn’t exhorbitantly expensive, but it’s not cheap either. Especially when you’re trying to arrange a cat in the scanner and make it happy. I’ve never had a scan, but I’ve heard that they’re noisy. It could put a cat’s purr right off.

They’ll probably eventually catch it while they’re scanning a cat for something else. Just like the first migraine event caught on scan.

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**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-not-know-how-cats-purr/441831/4 "2008-03-23T00:33:23Z")

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[QUOTE=Yllaria]  
arrange a cat  
[/QUOTE]  
That’s the first problem…

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**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-not-know-how-cats-purr/441831/5 "2008-03-23T14:04:30Z")

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[QUOTE=Yllaria]  
They’ll probably eventually catch it while they’re scanning a cat for something else. Just like the first migraine event caught on scan.  
[/QUOTE]  
Well, how often do they scan cats for something else? Cats freak out when you put them in some strange place. It doesn’t seem viable to me.