oh no 😦
The cat is moving in a circle, so it has a centripetal acceleration and a centripetal force. At the apex of the loop, that force is the sum of gravity, and resistance from the track. The track force is greater than or equal to zero, so acceleration due to gravity is less than or equal to the total centripetal acceleration.
g ≤ v²/r
So,
r ≤ v²/gTaking top speed of a cat as 8.278m/s (from Wolfram Alpha), and g on earth as 9.81m/s², this gives us r ≤ 6.99m. So long as the cat can maintain its top speed all around the loop, it can successfully do a loop of up to 14 meters diameter. This is a lot bigger than I expected, to the extent that I suspect some flaw in my reasoning.
The cat won’t be able to maintain its top speed because of deceleration from lack of friction
Claws homie
True. But if top speed allows for 14 meters, surely a 1.5 to 2 m loop should be possible (especially given a cat’s incredible reflexes and control given a lack of friction or even freefall). I’d guess that a cat, given enough motivation, could keep running under the little friction provided by the centripetal force for a few hundred milliseconds - likely long enough to complete a 1m loop, maybe even 2, given sufficient space for a top-speed run before entering…
Good point. It has zero contact force at the apex, so 14m is an upper bound on possible cat-loops.
I have one of those giant hamster wheels for our cat. If you use the laser pointer and get her to chase it on the cat-wheel, when she tries to stop when at full speed, she goes all the way around and the wheel spits her out. Funny as hell. Then she goes back for more. Cat loves the wheel.
We’re going to need a video of this now. Pay the cat tax.
@TheBenCommandments @jrwperformance
Yeaaahhh a video. Pay the tax man. Hand over the video.
Jpeg compression so bad I read that as “fake mouse on rat”
Yes, provided the chase didn’t stop a cat should easily do it.
Cat expert here. Yes a cat could.
I dunno. Build one and try it with your cat and let us know the results.
If the cat was chasing Tony Hawk instead of a mouse, yes.
Cat kinda lookin like Pikachu
My cat does that even without the walkway.
If the track is made of wood, yes.
Science!
At least 3 of my cats could do that, even at low speeds.
“You were so preoccupied with whether or not the cat could, that you didn’t stop to think if he would.”
I mean a hedgehog could do it walking slowly, I don’t see why I cat couldn’t do it running. Context
