(Originally posted on Mar 8, 2007 3:54)
Last night I came home late and slightly peckish so I decided to eat some bread.
While I was buttering the bread Cathleen (that's my cat) was as usual perched on a chair observing me. Observing the food in movement, actually.
In that moment I remembered the ages old physical law that says that a slice of bread always land butter side down. And then next I remembered that old law that says that cats always land on their feet. And of course this led me to that ages old theory of the cat/buttered-bread perpetual motion machine. You know what I'm talking about. The theory that says that if you strap a slice of buttered bread butter side up on the back of a cat, and throw them in the air the bread will tend to land butter side down while the cat will tend to land on its feet. Both tendencies will try to cancel each other and the contraption will then rotate, possibly with enough torque to generate free energy.
So... Have anyone here tried it? If so, does it work? Does the contraption actually rotate or just hover stationary in the air? If it rotates, how much torque does it generate? Well, I'm sure this will depend on the mass of the cat so, roughly speaking, how much torque you think a medium sized female birman would generate?
Ooooh, it makes me wonder...
While I was buttering the bread Cathleen (that's my cat) was as usual perched on a chair observing me. Observing the food in movement, actually.
In that moment I remembered the ages old physical law that says that a slice of bread always land butter side down. And then next I remembered that old law that says that cats always land on their feet. And of course this led me to that ages old theory of the cat/buttered-bread perpetual motion machine. You know what I'm talking about. The theory that says that if you strap a slice of buttered bread butter side up on the back of a cat, and throw them in the air the bread will tend to land butter side down while the cat will tend to land on its feet. Both tendencies will try to cancel each other and the contraption will then rotate, possibly with enough torque to generate free energy.
So... Have anyone here tried it? If so, does it work? Does the contraption actually rotate or just hover stationary in the air? If it rotates, how much torque does it generate? Well, I'm sure this will depend on the mass of the cat so, roughly speaking, how much torque you think a medium sized female birman would generate?
Ooooh, it makes me wonder...
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