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.
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.
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 reasonswhy the 46" jump couldn’t be considered as being clearly more than a meter.
Here’s a leaping cougar. 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.
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?