The science behind how cats drink
By gewcew23
@gewcew23 (8007)
United States
November 13, 2010 9:56am CST
Ever wondered how your cat drinks from their water bowl? Maybe not but here you go any ways. With the aid of high speed photography four engineers have discovered exactly how lapping works. Cat’s lapping method depends on its instinctive ability to calculate the point at which gravitational force would overcome inertia and cause the water to fall. Cats do this at the speed of four times a second too fast for the human eye to see anything but a blur and its tongue moves at a speed of one meter per second.
You can read about here,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/science/12cats.html?_r=2&hp
Or you can watch the video about here,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ1CFLKGMIw
2 people like this
7 responses
@cicisnana (772)
• United States
14 Nov 10
That's awesome, I have always wondered that. I always thought it had more to do with the gritty feel of their tongue's though.
1 person likes this
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
14 Nov 10
A very nice post. It is always fun to learn more about our feline friends. I have 3!
1 person likes this
@dark_joev (3034)
• United States
13 Nov 10
That was an awesome video and yeah it is really cool what high speed photography can see and allow us to see that our eyes just can't pick up on or get it to our brains fast enough for our brains to be able to understand it.
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
1 Jan 11
I just found this discussion, that's why my response is so late! That's really fascinating, but then, cats are truly fascinating, aren't they? From little house cats like your three and my five to big, magnificent lions and tigers, they're amazing creatures in many ways.
I knew cats moved their tongues in the opposite way from how dogs do, or something like that, but I didn't know exactly how and I certainly didn't know they did it so fast. I was just watching my one kitty drinking water and you're so right, you can't see anything but a blur!
Annie
