# How high could I jump if my legs were as powerful as a house cat's hind legs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 22, 2003, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-could-i-jump-if-my-legs-were-as-powerful-as-a-house-cats-hind-legs/220421 "2003-12-22T06:24:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-could-i-jump-if-my-legs-were-as-powerful-as-a-house-cats-hind-legs/220421/201 "2016-01-17T18:07:20Z")
[not the best video quality bushbaby jump](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n62zvlgEk-c). Amateur and spotting exactly where he catches the tree isn’t easy, but you can tell it’s pretty high. > [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > As for considering an animal to have jumped before it has left the ground… I don’t. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding your point, but I don’t considering a rearing horse to have jumped at all. I suppose we could discuss which animals have the longest upward shift of center of gravity in a given time frame, but that sounds like a new topic. The height an animal can jump is obviously tied to the amount of acceleration it can generate and the length of time of acceleration. So a reared horse, with legs partially extended before it begins final acceleration is a disadvantage not an advantage. And I guess it’s semantics but the “jump” to me is the whole process ie you begin the jump as you begin to push with your legs. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-could-i-jump-if-my-legs-were-as-powerful-as-a-house-cats-hind-legs/220421/202 "2016-01-17T18:21:28Z")
That cat video you linked is pretty awesome though. ---
**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:** [January 17, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-could-i-jump-if-my-legs-were-as-powerful-as-a-house-cats-hind-legs/220421/203 "2016-01-17T21:37:22Z")
One could also interpret the OP as “If I were my size, but had the same overall build as a cat, how high could I jump?”. And the simplest answer to that is to find a cat of about the same size as a human, and to see how high they can jump. It looks like male cougars are about human-sized, so there’s your answer. It should also be noted, by the way, that the usual measurement of a high jump doesn’t necessarily tell you how high the center of mass went. A human doing a high jump will bend in the middle, in such a way that the center of mass is never actually above the bar. A better measure is the jump-and-reach: Stand next to a wall with a piece of chalk in your hand, reach up as high as you can, and make a mark. Then jump and make a mark as high as you can. Your jump-and-reach is the difference between those two marks. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-could-i-jump-if-my-legs-were-as-powerful-as-a-house-cats-hind-legs/220421/204 "2016-01-18T01:21:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A better measure is the jump-and-reach: Stand next to a wall with a piece of chalk in your hand, reach up as high as you can, and make a mark. Then jump and make a mark as high as you can. Your jump-and-reach is the difference between those two marks. Hi **Chronos**. A couple nitpicks. When you jump, you’ll be going off from your tiptoes, so standing on your tiptoes will give a more accurate measurement. Also you’ll be extremely prone to elevating one shoulder/arm as high as possible, so bouncing up on just ONE foot’s tiptoes will give a more accurate base mark – or just be very disciplined about keeping your shoulders level when you jump. In this thread, back in 2003, the leaping ability of athletes at the NFL Indy Draft Combine was raised – specifically Champ Bailey’s vertical jump measurement of 46". That point was also raised in the Pit thread, and [I tried to point out some reasons](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14782209&postcount=111)why the 46" jump couldn’t be considered as being clearly more than a meter. ---
**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:** [January 18, 2016, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-could-i-jump-if-my-legs-were-as-powerful-as-a-house-cats-hind-legs/220421/205 "2016-01-18T04:41:48Z")
Oh, it’s still not a perfect measure. I’m just saying that it’s a better measure than a flopped high-jump. ---
**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:** [January 18, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-could-i-jump-if-my-legs-were-as-powerful-as-a-house-cats-hind-legs/220421/206 "2016-01-18T14:54:54Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > That cat video you linked is pretty awesome though. tl;dr : What post is the vid link. That’s what I want to see. And maybe a man-sized cougar. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-could-i-jump-if-my-legs-were-as-powerful-as-a-house-cats-hind-legs/220421/207 "2016-01-18T16:04:28Z")
Here’s a [leaping cougar.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HUuiMwhBDsQ) It doesn’t offer as much info as the savannah cat video, but the cat’s back paws seem to get above the trainer’s navel, before they start swinging sideways. (As long as the paws are extended straight down they can be used to judge the height of the jump.) The savannah cat video link -with some analysis- is in post 192. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-could-i-jump-if-my-legs-were-as-powerful-as-a-house-cats-hind-legs/220421/208 "2016-01-18T16:31:08Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > And I guess it’s semantics but the “jump” to me is the whole process ie you begin the jump as you begin to push with your legs. Would you consider a human that started in pushup position on the floor, and then pushed up to a squatting position, and the stood straight up to be part of a “jump”? After all, the center of gravity probably raised 4ft just in that process alone, with the feet still on the floor. Would you consider that a 4ft jump? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-high-could-i-jump-if-my-legs-were-as-powerful-as-a-house-cats-hind-legs/220421.md?page=10)