Laws and Principles: Buttered Cat Paradox

 The buttered cat paradox is a tongue-in-cheek combination of two adages:

- cats always land on their feet;

- buttered toast always lands buttered side down.

The paradox arises when a piece of buttered toast is strapped to the back of a cat, buttered side up, and the cat is then dropped off a building at a great height.

The question then is: which lands first, the toast, or the feet of the cat?

-  There are two obvious answers: the cat lands on the toast or the cat lands on its feet.

-  There has, however, been considerable debate and humorous conjecture about the possibility of the two opposing forces causing the cat to go into a faster and faster spin as the two forces act against each other.

-  There is further conjecture that as the cat nears the ground it will end up hovering in a steady state.

-  There is a detailed analysis of the paradox in the comments section, and an application to the principles of hovercraft, at:

http://echochamber.me/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=30263

-  For the practical application of the buttered cat paradox as an antigravity vortex (also known as a “gravitic warp”), see: :

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Murphy%27s_law_application_for_antigravitatory_cats

A YouTube video on the paradox is at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvRzWYCZ2e0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ebibi%2Eorg%2Fbox%2Farchives%2F2007%2F02%2Fbuttered%5Fcat%5Fparadox%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

According to that clip, “applied logically jellied (buttered) cats floating over white carpets can support hover monorail, thus solving problems with fuel shortages for mass transportations".

I like the comment from one person in response: “I tried it, but my cat went totally flat when I put it under the train and it refuses to meow anymore.”