Buttered cat paradox
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The buttered cat paradox is a paradox based on the tongue-in-cheek combination of two bits of folk wisdom:
- Cats always land on their feet.
- Buttered toast always lands buttered side down.
The paradox arises when one considers what would happen if one attached a piece of buttered toast (butter side up) to the back of a cat, then dropped the cat from a large height.
Contents
Thought experiments
While the paradox originated as a tongue-in-cheek combination of two bits of folk advice, it ended up creating some interesting thought experiments.
Some people jokingly maintain that the experiment will produce an anti-gravity effect. They propose that as the cat falls towards the ground, it will slow down and start to rotate, eventually reaching a steady state of hovering a short distance from the ground while rotating at high speed as both the buttered side of the toast and the cat’s feet attempt to land on the ground.[1] This, however, would require the energy that keeps them rotating to come from the gravitational energy expended in the system's fall; otherwise it would violate the Law of Conservation of Energy.
Loophole theories
There have been several attempts to resolve the apparent "paradox" via loopholes in the rules:[2]
One theory holds that it is impossible to strap a cat to a piece of buttered toast, because cats vanish when strapping devices are brought near them. Another theory holds that an object does not "land" until it touches the ground (or the floor). Therefore, if a cat lands on its feet while a piece of buttered toast is attached buttered side up to its back, the toast has not yet landed, so no contradiction occurs. Later, when the cat rolls over, the buttered side of the toast will touch the ground, thereby "landing" as it is supposed to. Also, as a Chemistry teacher would say, the cat and the buttered toast don't bond to the floor. Therefore, no paradox exists. Another theory states that the toast and the cat would land correctly but the cat would be severely damaged as a result of the toast tearing its way through the cat or twisting its abdomen.
In popular culture
- In June 2003, Kimberly Miner won a Student Academy Award for her film Perpetual Motion.[3] Miner based her film on a paper written by a high-school friend that explored the potential implications of the cat and buttered toast idea.[4][5]
- In the comic book strip Jack B. Quick the title character seeks to test this theory, leading to the cat hovering above the ground, with the cat's wagging tail providing propulsion. Eventually the cat crashes to the ground as it manages to lick the butter from the toast.
- The 2005-03-31 strip of the webcomic Bunny presented the Pink bunny's plan for the "Perpetual Motion MoggieToast5k™ Power Generator", based on Sod's Law.[6]
- In Science Askew, Donald E. Simanek comments on this phenomenon. [7]
See also
References
- ^ UoWaikato newsletter
- ^ The Buttered Bread on Cat Problem
- ^ Available at http://unreal.rit.edu/Kim_Miner/Perpetual_Motion.ram
- ^ University of Leeds. Perpetual Motion.
- ^ Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts 2003
- ^ Feline cunning and sods law
- ^ Donald E. Simanek, Science Askew: A Light-hearted look at the scientific world, Taylor and Francis, 2001. pg 201. See here on Google Books
External links
Template:Illustrated Wikipedia
- Uncyclopedia's article on the matter.
- New Scientist
- Science Frontiers Online
- The Usenet Oracle where this joke appeared in 1992.
