Can A Cat Survive a Fall of over 7 Stories High?

Published Tuesday, August 11, 2009 11:38 AM



The Answer is Yes!

In fact any fall less than 7 stories would more likely cause death then a fall 7 stories or higher. Why is this? Because cats have the ability to turn themselves right side up given enough time to do so. When they accomplish this and achieve terminal velocity their body begins to relax and the limbs will naturally spread out in a flying squirrel kind of way. When in this position they actually begin to slow down to a terminal velocity of 60 MPH. Humans terminal Velocity is about 120 MPH.

With the cats spread out position it will evenly distribute the impact force of it’s landing. The cat may break some bones on impact but it will live. Cats can only perceive acceleration so once they stop accelerating they begin to relax and with there spread eagle position they actually slow down. A cat’s survival rate will actually hold steady at 95% from 9 – 32 stories.

Don’t believe me well do some research for yourself. The link below might get you started. There have been actual test of this and poor cats have been thrown out of buildings and airplanes and have lived to tell the tail.

Article Link

by willburns1
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Comments

# mongoosehuman said on Monday, October 05, 2009 11:40 PM

This is indeed fun study, but it's fun because it's a textbook case of poor data sampling.  (I literally read about in a textbook: _The Analysis of Biological Data_ by Whitlock and Schluter).

The data for cats are the number of injuries reported by veterinarians.  The reason that the number of injuries decreases after 4 stories is not because cats stop being injured; it's because the cats stop being taken to the vet.  Dead cats, especially really dead cats, like those who just fell 9 stories, usually aren't taken the vet.  So, the decrease in reported injuries after 4 stories is indicative of an increase in mortality -- just like you'd expect.  

# kurt said on Tuesday, October 06, 2009 12:00 PM

Well I am glad data was collected this way rather than actually throwing cats off buildings;)  Thank you posting,  I totally believed the original post as my cat can survive just about anything.  However, he is likely possessed and should be the focus of a different study altogether.  Is there any data or even anecdotal evidence on survivors of falls above 5 stories human or cat?

# willburns1 said on Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:45 PM

this cat fell out of a tree about 80 feet. www.youtube.com/watch

# willburns1 said on Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:46 PM

This one fell 26 Stories. www.youtube.com/watch

# willburns1 said on Tuesday, October 06, 2009 3:36 PM

mongoosehuman you make a good point. I am not married to that states that I read about. Your explanation to why the states come out that way make sense. I still think it's an interesting bit of science.

# kurt said on Wednesday, October 07, 2009 2:19 PM

Whoa, very cool, 28 stories, that is AMAZING!  It's true that studies often are flawed with bad data to begin with, garbage in, garbage out as they say.  There seems to be some real science here.  It maybe too fat cats don't benefit from the same aerodynamic design that a thin cat has.  It get's complicated fast.  

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