Merged Cats are Classy Drinkers (NYT Article)

[excaza]

Saw this on the front page of the NYT this morning, I found it incredibly interesting

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/science/12cats.html?ref=science

Writing in the Thursday issue of Science, the four engineers report that the cat’s lapping method depends on its instinctive ability to calculate the balance between opposing gravitational and inertial forces.

What happens is that the cat darts its tongue, curving the upper side downward so that the tip lightly touches the surface of the water.

The tongue is then pulled upward at high speed, drawing a column of water behind it.

Just at the moment that gravity finally overcomes the rush of the water and starts to pull the column down — snap! The cat’s jaws have closed over the jet of water and swallowed it.

SCIENCE!

 

[The Don]

Much more refined than those horrible tsunami-inducing curs

 

[catsmate]

Cool. I'm going to set up a camera next to Leonard's drinking fountain.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Cool. I'm going to set up a camera next to Leonard's drinking fountain.

You named your cat after me? Cool.

 

[Halfcentaur]

Yeah, well dogs can read emotional queues on the face of a human, and are aware of the meaning behind pointing to objects, as well as capable of tracking the whites of our eyes and understanding a photograph of an object is an abstract representation of a separate real world object. Nova has informed me of this. They've had more time though,...

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Dogs-Decoded-Nova/70148726?trkid=921407#height952

 

[catsmate]

You named your cat after me? Cool.

OK.......... Actually none of us can explain why he came to be called Leonard¹; it just seemed to suit him. He's a Bengal Cat so he resembles a miniature leopard and has amazing reflexes when it comes to someone trying to photograph him.





¹ Obviously it was the telepathic influence of the Felluminati

 

[jaydeehess]

Cats are Classy Drinkers

Riley, pictured on the left under my name, agrees.

The dogs splash water all over the place and drip copuous quantities of it as they walk away from the dish. Riley is quite a bit more refined as you can plainly see by his demeanor.

 

[FattyCatty]

Did You Already Know This Interesting Fact About Cats?

The physics of how cats drink without getting wet, from The Washington Post:

As all cat lovers know well, Felis domestica is a marvel of balance, subtlety and other hidden elegances.

Prepare to learn of another remarkable attribute: Four researchers have painstakingly filmed, analyzed and determined how it is that a cat can drink water while (unlike a dog) keeping its chin and whiskers pleasingly dry.

The answer involves an exquisite demonstration of physics: The cat, in effect, balances the forces of gravity against the forces of inertia, and so quenches its thirst.

Did you already know this interesting fact about cats? I didn't, and found it fascinating; I'd always thought they curled their tongues backwards to drink.

 

[Mister Earl]

I wonder what would happen if you altered the thickness or surface tension of the liquid they're drinking. I bet it'd mess up their system.

 

[Ron_Tomkins]

Yet another reason for me to adore cats above everything else.

 

[InfidelSavant]

Yet another reason for me to adore cats above everything else.

Are you kidding? This kind of devilry is why cats cannot be trusted.

 

[Psi Baba]

Cats are Classy Drinkers.

That's very true. Mine prefers his 5:1 gin-to-vermouth ratio; Tanqueray and Noilly Prat, three drops of orange bitters, and lemon twist. Stirred, not shaken. Absolutely not.

 

[paiute]

The physics of how cats drink without getting wet, from The Washington Post:


Did you already know this interesting fact about cats? I didn't, and found it fascinating; I'd always thought they curled their tongues backwards to drink.

1. Cat's don't "understand" physics and inertia, as claimed in the report.

2. If you had asked me how cats drink, I would have said barbed tongue/high surface area/hydrophilic surface/surface tension/quick movement. I wasn't aware this was some kind of mysterious process.

 

[catsmate]

Semi-duplicate with this thread about the same story in a different newspaper.

 

[FattyCatty]

Semi-duplicate with this thread about the same story in a different newspaper.

Yes, thank you, I figured that out and reported myself, asking that the two threads be merged.

 

[rjh01]

Here is a youtube on the subject

 

[Ron_Tomkins]

Are you kidding? This kind of devilry is why cats cannot be trusted.

I love that which cannot be trusted

 

[Percent]

Yeah, well dogs can read emotional queues on the face of a human, and are aware of the meaning behind pointing to objects, as well as capable of tracking the whites of our eyes and understanding a photograph of an object is an abstract representation of a separate real world object. Nova has informed me of this. They've had more time though,...

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Dogs-Decoded-Nova/70148726?trkid=921407#height952

Sure. In fact, it appears dogs are more like children than chimpanzees when it comes to following directions from bossy humans.

(Dogs (not chimps) most like humans. Dogs Interpret Signals Better than Chimps. )

But don’t count us cats out of the communication game. If you let us hang with you long enough, we will surprise you with how much we know about your world. We appear to know a lot about your pointing to objects, tracking your eyes (even in mirrors), your language, your every move and thought, and especially what it takes to trick you into looking the other way while we partake of that “oh so special water” that we can only get out of your bedside-table drinking glass .

Percent

P.S. Anne thinks I’m starting to drool a bit now that I’m coming up on my 19th Thanksgiving with her. I maintain that I'm classy.

 

[Aepervius]

Cat defy gravity. There is a split second in which the cat can ignore gravity, then gravity get reminded of the cat . So that does not surprise me that cat drink that way.

(cartoon in french)

Maliki, cat defy gravity

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Sure. In fact, it appears dogs are more like children than chimpanzees when it comes to following directions from bossy humans.

(Dogs (not chimps) most like humans. Dogs Interpret Signals Better than Chimps. )

But don’t count us cats out of the communication game. If you let us hang with you long enough, we will surprise you with how much we know about your world. We appear to know a lot about your pointing to objects, tracking your eyes (even in mirrors), your language, your every move and thought, and especially what it takes to trick you into looking the other way while we partake of that “oh so special water” that we can only get out of your bedside-table drinking glass .

Percent

P.S. Anne thinks I’m starting to drool a bit now that I’m coming up on my 19th Thanksgiving with her. I maintain that I'm classy.

Well, dogs have also been bred to understand the signals, expressions, etc of humans for a very long time as opposed to cats, which were doing fine catching vermin on their own.