Hi there...I see this question so frequently that I had to finally answer with a cut/paste:
If you drop a buttered piece of bread, it will fall on the floor butter-side down. If a cat is dropped from a window or other high and towering place, it will land on its feet.
But what if you attach a buttered piece of bread, butter-side up to a cat's back and toss them both out the window? Will the cat land on its feet? Or will the butter splat on the ground?
Even if you are too lazy to do the experiment yourself you should be able to deduce the obvious result. The laws of butterology demand that the butter must hit the ground, and the equally strict laws of feline aerodynamics demand that the cat can not smash its furry back. If the combined construct were to land, nature would have no way to resolve this paradox. Therefore it simply does not fall.
That's right you clever mortal (well, as clever as a mortal can get), you have discovered the secret of antigravity! A buttered cat will, when released, quickly move to a height where the forces of cat-twisting and butter repulsion are in equilibrium. This equilibrium point can be modified by scraping off some of the butter, providing lift, or removing some of the cat's limbs, allowing descent.
Most of the civilized species of the Universe already use this principle to drive their ships while within a planetary system. The loud humming heard by most sighters of UFOs is, in fact, the purring of several hundred tabbies.
The one obvious danger is, of course, if the cats manage to eat the bread off their backs they will instantly plummet. Of course the cats will land on their feet, but this usually doesn't do them much good, since right after they make their graceful landing several tons of red-hot starship and ticked off aliens crash on top of them.
And now a few words on solving the problem of creating a ship using the aforementioned anti-gravity device.
One could power a ship by means of cats held in suspended animation (say, about -190 degrees Celsius) with buttered bread strapped to their backs, thus avoiding the possibility of collisions due to tempermental felines. More importantly, how do you steer, once the cats are all held in stasis?
I offer a modest proposal:
We all know that wearing a white shirt at an Italian restaurant is a guaranteed way to take a trip to the laudromat. Plaster the outside of your ship with white shirts. Place four nozzles symmetrically around the ship, which is, of course, saucer shaped. Fire tomato sauce out in proportion to the directions you want to go. The ship, drawn by the shirts, will automatically follow the sauce. If you use t-shirts, you won't go as fast as you would by using, say, expensive dress shirts. This does not work as well in deep gravity wells, since the tomato sauce (now falling down a black hole, perhaps) will drag the ship with it, despite the counter force of the anti-gravity cat/butter machine. Your only hope at that point is to jettison enormous quantities of Tide. This will create the well-known Gravitational Tidal Force.
2006-12-02 08:15:12
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answer #1
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answered by ♪ Seattle ♫ 7
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Even if you are too lazy to do the experiment yourself you should be able to deduce the obvious result. The laws of butterology demand that the butter must hit the ground, and the equally strict laws of feline aerodynamics demand that the cat can not smash its furry back. If the combined construct were to land, nature would have no way to resolve this paradox. Therefore it simply does not fall.
That's right, you clever mortal (well, as clever as a mortal can get), you have discovered the secret of antigravity! A buttered cat will, when released, quickly move to a height where the forces of cat-twisting and butter repulsion are in equilibrium. This equilibrium point can be modified by scraping off some of the butter, providing lift, or removing some of the cat's limbs, allowing descent.
Most of the civilized species of the Universe already use this principle to drive their ships while within a planetary system. The loud humming heard by most sighters of UFOs is, in fact, the purring of several hundred tabbies.
The one obvious danger is, of course, if the cats manage to eat the bread off their backs they will instantly plummet. Of course the cats will land on their feet, but this usually doesn't do them much good, since right after they make their graceful landing several tons of red-hot starship and cheesed-off aliens crash on top of them.
2006-12-02 16:14:19
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answer #2
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answered by Stephen L 7
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Check out this website http://www.yuckles.com/catsounds.htm because it actually has a story on the concept of cat-buttered toast physics. Basically since a cat has to land feet side up and buttered toast has to land buttered side down, the two would never land and simply hover in the air. lol.
2006-12-02 16:32:57
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answer #3
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answered by jjmlls 2
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wait wouldnt the cat land on its side. I mean really I am not a giant cant toast physicsist but really they would cancel eachother out and both land perfectly on thier sides. Or they could float, but I offer another secenario. Since both cat feet and buttered toast phenomenons are universal laws wouldnt this experiment destroy the universe. Kinda like if you were to go back in time and kill yourself.
2006-12-02 16:50:03
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answer #4
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answered by neilmccalister 3
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Unless you fixed it with a long nail, it would fall off before the cat fell to the ground.
Metaphysical questions belong in the religion section!
My cat would laugh and lick the butter off the toast!
2006-12-02 16:15:10
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answer #5
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answered by saehli 6
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I once tried a slight twist to this experiment and attached the toast to the side of my cat's body. This caused my cat to actually go into a spin as it fell to the ground. I can't tell you what landed first because the whole thing was spinning so fast, it was just a blur.
2006-12-02 17:25:11
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answer #6
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answered by punkyboy969 2
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Better still, why not just cut out the middle man and butter the cat instead????
Please note: The RSPCA would like to point out that no animals were harmed during the writing of this reply.
2006-12-02 16:21:36
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answer #7
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answered by Daisy the cow 5
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That's silly, the cat would probably land on its feet anyway because of more surface area. DO NOT TRY IT. Its so evil.
2006-12-02 16:13:32
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answer #8
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answered by Tink 4
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The cat would still land on it's feet and the toast would fall off...........unless you had superglued it to the cat :-)
2006-12-06 14:25:00
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answer #9
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answered by Anonymous
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the cat, being bigger and able to change positions would land feet first. Been done dozens of times
2006-12-02 16:13:28
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answer #10
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answered by judy_r8 6
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