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i can has zero gravity?

MarianLH

MarianLH

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
I just ran across this 1979 account by Jerry Pournelle of an eary zero-g experiment and thought it was funny enough to share.

I will not soon forget some of our early low-g experiments. Some genius wanted to know how a cat oriented: visual cues, or a gravity sensor? The obvious way to find out was to take a cat up in an airplane, fly the plane in a parabolic orbit, and observe the cat during the short period of zero-g.

It made sense. Maybe. It didn't make enough that anyone would authorize a large airplane for the experiment, so a camera was mounted in a small fighter (perhaps a T-bird; I forget), and the cat was carried along in the pilot's lap. A movie was made of the whole run.

The film, I fear, doesn't tell us how a cat orients. It shows the pilot frantically trying to tear the cat off his arm, and the cat just as violently resisting. Eventually the cat was broken free and let go in mid-air, where it seemed magically (teleportation? or not really zero gravity in the plane? no one knows) to move, rapidly, straight back to the pilot, claws outstretched. This time there was no tearing it loose at all. The only thing I learned from the film is that cats (or this one anyway) don't like zero gravity, and think human beings are the obvious point of stability to cling to...
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Marian
 
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That is hilarious. There are some pretty funny youtube videos of dogs at zero gravity. The video of the astronauts and the flailing kitty is somewhere between funny, sad and fascinating. It is amazing watching it spin as it tries to gauge when it will land.
 
Man, if someone really did that in a single seat plane, they're really lucky they didn't wind up with a Darwin Award!

AG, slave to 2 cats.
 
I vote for the cat video as being pretty funny. Cats can be pretty full of themselves so it's good to give them a taste of humility once in a while.
 
The film, I fear, doesn't tell us how a cat orients. It shows the pilot frantically trying to tear the cat off his arm, and the cat just as violently resisting. Eventually the cat was broken free and let go in mid-air, where it seemed magically (teleportation? or not really zero gravity in the plane? no one knows) to move, rapidly, straight back to the pilot, claws outstretched. This time there was no tearing it loose at all. The only thing I learned from the film is that cats (or this one anyway) don't like zero gravity, and think human beings are the obvious point of stability to cling to...
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I could've guessed that beforehand. That's pretty much how Shadow reacted to our attempts to acclimate him to the backyard -- with me as the clingee. Ow ow ow! (I was torn between wanting him to stop climbing me because it hurt and wanting him to continue since it was so adorable.)

Cats are adaptable and able to learn, though. Given time, I'm sure a cat could acclimate to microgravity and figure out strategies for dealing with it.
 
I would pay money to see my Tortie in microgravity. After giving her a good pedicure first, of course. That cat is intimately familiar with the Doppler effect whenever she runs as it is.

Doppler effect + microgravity - sharp pointy claws = comedy gold.
 
:guffaw::guffaw::guffaw::guffaw::guffaw::guffaw:




Gotta luv cats!

I have on occasion have had to physically separate a cat from my body while in a driving car -I would never be crazy enough to try anything like that on a plane.


Or in low g.



______ o O o ______​
Newton's First Law of Cat Motion
A cat will move in a straight line, unless there is a really good reason to change direction.


Newton's Law of Feline Acceleration
A cat continues to accelerate at a constant speed until it needs to stop.

Newton's Law of Concentration of Mass
A cat's mass increases in direct proportion to the comfort of the lap it occupies.

Newton's Law of Feline Gravity Manipulation
Cats have the ability to manipulate gravity, forming localized areas of strong gravitational attraction. This gives the impression of a cat growing heavier as it occupies a lap or bed. This is a linear effect with gravity increasing at a steady rate over time.
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From Feline Laws of Physics
 
^^They forgot to mention that cats can also negate gravity and levitate. And teleport onto your lap and sit there for a minute before you realize they're there.
 
M'Sharak said:
Christopher said:
^^They forgot to mention that cats can also negate gravity and levitate.
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You're referring to the Buttered Cat Paradox? The site to which _dane linked does cover that on another page, but some of the phraseology is cutesy enough that it may spoil your lunch. (Proceed with caution.)
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And of course the fact that cats are exempt from the Law of Gravity in general…

gravity.jpg
 
Christopher said:
^^They forgot to mention that cats can also negate gravity and levitate. And teleport onto your lap and sit there for a minute before you realize they're there.
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When I was a kid, our cat displayed an uncanny teleportation skill during a routine visit to the vet. He was already pissed off from being carried there in a box (As Pratchett said - a cat in a box can exist in three states: Alive, dead, or Bloody Furious), so getting spooked by a dog once we got there was the final straw that triggered his amazing teleportational feat.

One minute he was in the box looking annoyed and grumpy, and within a microsecond of getting spooked by the dog he teleported up to face-level and embedded one claw right through my mum's top lip. The Gravity Manipulation Effect came into play at this time for added ouchies.

I have to say that the veterinarian's Upper Lip Cat Removal skills were awesome.

:D
 
ITHell said:
Christopher said:
^^They forgot to mention that cats can also negate gravity and levitate. And teleport onto your lap and sit there for a minute before you realize they're there.
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When I was a kid, our cat displayed an uncanny teleportation skill during a routine visit to the vet. /.../
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Indeed, teleportation, that is what my cat did to get out of the box and onto me -whenever going to the vet… no dog needed though; just the cat in the box in a car was enough to trigger this behavior :rommie:
 
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