Cats are liquid — if they choose to be
Science marches on! A new study shows that cats can be liquid, if they choose to be.
Fardin noticed that these furry pets can adapt to the shape of the container they sit in—think of a cat in a vase—similarly to what fluids such as water do. So he used the principles of rheology, the branch of physics that deals with the deformation of matter, to calculate cats’ relaxation time, or the time it takes for them to take up the space of a vase or bathroom sink.
The conclusion? Cats can be either liquid or solid, depending on the circumstances, Fardin reported in the Rheology Bulletin in 2014…. A cat in a small box will behave like a fluid, filling up all the space, but a cat in a bathtub full of water will try to minimize its contact with it and behave very much like a solid.
Anyone who has ever owned a cat will be understand this research. It isn’t that cats can be liquid that is expected, it is that cats will do what they want. If they want to be liquid, no one is going to stop them.
Because of this ground-breaking research, the scientist has won this year’s Ig Nobel Physics Prize.
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Science marches on! A new study shows that cats can be liquid, if they choose to be.
Fardin noticed that these furry pets can adapt to the shape of the container they sit in—think of a cat in a vase—similarly to what fluids such as water do. So he used the principles of rheology, the branch of physics that deals with the deformation of matter, to calculate cats’ relaxation time, or the time it takes for them to take up the space of a vase or bathroom sink.
The conclusion? Cats can be either liquid or solid, depending on the circumstances, Fardin reported in the Rheology Bulletin in 2014…. A cat in a small box will behave like a fluid, filling up all the space, but a cat in a bathtub full of water will try to minimize its contact with it and behave very much like a solid.
Anyone who has ever owned a cat will be understand this research. It isn’t that cats can be liquid that is expected, it is that cats will do what they want. If they want to be liquid, no one is going to stop them.
Because of this ground-breaking research, the scientist has won this year’s Ig Nobel Physics Prize.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
They forgot to say that cat also exhibit displays of magnetivity and repulsion, sometimes at the same time!
I just know there’s a joke about Schrodinger in there somewhere…… ;-)
“Rheology,” I must admit, that is a new one for me.
Anecdotally; when I first encountered my current Cat, he was sleeping in cereal bowl.
Excuse while I digress briefly into quantum mechanics & Cats. (I’ve been waiting months to use this picture.)
A picture of–
“Schrodinger’s Cat-Carrier”
http://mediacdn.snorgcontent.com/media/catalog/product/p/a/pavlovcatbrown_fullpic.png
whoops… wrong link
“Schrodinger’s Cat-Carrier”
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8192/8132455446_3989bfea03_b.jpg
Joe/Steve–
Ya beat me to it! Good stuff.
(I’ve been fumbling around for 20 minutes on this one, my browser isn’t playing well with reCAPTCHA today.)
Wayne, Love the photo! Also cat should have read as cats.
You can also pour cats just like a liquid.
Joe-
[“Also, cat should have read as cats.”]
That, is brilliant!
(seriously, been waiting months for a good cat + physics thread, to use that cat-carrier picture.)
pivoting slightly, the Master of the Overhead Projector, weighs in on Uncertainty and Cats-
“Dr. Roger Penrose on Quantum Mechanics and Schrodinger’s Cat”
extended clip from a 2003 lecture
https://youtu.be/0fXfh-IFMSs
(25:03)
wodun
good stuff.
If I flip my cat upside down, he immediately turns to Jell-O.
Logan’s Run –
The Naming of Cats – Peter Ustinov scene
https://youtu.be/b7R4KZz2wbk
(1:26)
Had a cat once capable of reactionless acceleration. She was ambushing one of our hens in the backyard (no harm would come to either party – cat was doing it for fun) when the hen turned around while the cat was in mid leap. Hen jumped in the air and I swear the cat stopped in mid leap and went the other direction.
Mike-
“reactionless acceleration”
>Most excellent stuff!
So not only are they liquids, they’re non-newtonian liquids based on their behavior when contact with water is attempted.
Commodude-
…. very intriguing!
This just in… (seriously)
“Cats in Physics”
9-15-17
https://jphysplus.iop.org/2017/09/15/cats-in-physics/
My link immediately above (if that’s even a ‘real’ Journal?!, found it on the Interweb) references 2 interesting papers on Cats & QM, but both appear to be behind a paywall.
“Do free-falling quantum cats land on their feet?”
from 7-3-2015
&
“Interpreting the macroscopic pointer by analyzing the elements of reality of a Schrödinger cat.”
brand new today9-15-2017
Normally, I’d immediately attack such “crazy sounding research stuff,” but I like Cats and I get the abstract-concepts that underlie it all.
(In some alternate Universe, it’s maybe… Pavlov’s Cat & Schrodinger’s Dog?)
tangentially– “symmetry” in the field of Math concerns itself (in part) with determining the natural gate of animals as they walk or run, how spots & stripes manifest, patterns of sand dunes, etc..
See:
Gresham College lecture 2013
Prof Ian Stuart
“How Mathematician’s think about Patterns”
(embedded player or download)
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-mathematicians-think-about-patterns
The parasite cats carry can have some impressive (damaging) effects as well:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4156708/Could-CAT-s-poop-Alzheimer-s.html
For an interesting (and longer) article on the subject:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/308873/
Mitch S: In reading the second link you posted, I could not help think of numerous science fiction movies where aliens take over our brains. In this case, however, the aliens are cats!
Are cats a fifth state of matter?
Blair, yes!
Wayne, Dr. Roger Penrose, he is a comedian, yes?
using up my File of outrageously obscure cultural-references;
The Cats of Ulthar
H.P. Lovecraft
https://youtu.be/8hHTSTg1l_A
(9:32)
Joe–
Dr. Penrose is the master of overhead-projectors and he makes his own transparency’s!
“Are We Due for a New Revolution in Physics?”
Dr. Roger Penrose at Perimeter Institute 2015
https://youtu.be/_R0j2BX6t_c
(57:04)