Your chance of surviving a fall of 50 feet (approximately 4 stories) is about 50%, while almost no one who falls 6 stories will be around to tell their tale. However, in a study conducted by Manhattan veterinarians, Drs. Wayne Whitney and Cheryl Mehlhaff, it was discovered that out of 115 cases of cats falling (accidentally) from multi-story heights, 90% of them survived. An even more surprising result is that if a cat falls from more than 7 stories its chance of survival doubles, compared to a cat having fallen from 2 to 7 stories (a story averages about 12 feet). No wonder cats are fabled to have nine lives. It turns out that the two most important variables which contribute to the cat's survival are its ability to land on its feet and its reaching terminal velocity (both of which involve a fair deal of physics).
Whitney & Melhaff's Study
Cats' apparent fearlessness concerning heights leads to many accidental falls. In fact so many cats are brought to veterinarians for treatment after a fall, that in 1976 Dr. Gordon Robinson coined the term feline high-rise syndrome to describe the resulting pattern of injuries. Eleven years later Drs. Wayne Whitney and Cheryl Mehlhaff at the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan conducted a study over a five month period on cats brought in for treatment after a fall. They compiled a database of 115 cats who fell a range of two to thirty-two stories, primarily ending their falls on concrete pavement. The mean fall was 5.5 stories. Three of the cats were dead upon arrival and 8 more died in the next twenty-four hours, leaving 104 living cats or about 90%. This is a remarkable statistic.
When the height the cats fell is taken into account, it is found that only 5% of the cats who fell seven ...
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... a small amount of mass, but also their ability comes from their flying squirrel (relaxed) posture upon reaching terminal velocity and from their superb inner gyroscope.
Works Cited
* Diamond, Jared. "How Cats Survive Falls from New York Skyscapers," Natural History 20-26; August 1989.
* Diamod, Jared. "Why cats have nine lives," Nature 332, 586-587; April 14, 1988.
* Fredrickson, J. E. "The tail-less cat in free-fall," The Physics Teacher. 27, 620-625; November 1989.
* Halliday, David, Robert Resnick and Jearl Walker. Fundamentals of Physics, 5th ed. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1997.
* Mehlhaff, Cheryl and Wayne Whitney. "High-rise syndrome in cats," J. Amer. Vet. Med. Assoc. 191, 1399-1403;1987.
* "Terminal Velocity," Discover 9,10; August 1988.
* Von Baeyer, Hans Christian. "Swing Shift," The Sciences 30, 2-4; May/June 1990.
Based on the law of physics when a person falls down the stairs they would have to land on there stomach. In this case even if he did fall down the stairs he wouldn’t have anyplace to roll down to fall on his back. He was in fact going upstairs when he fell.
We tested an apple being dropped from a constant distance of 2.4m above the ground, this was used as a representation of a person falling from a high distance. We also tested a blood-like substance being dropped from a medicine dropper from a constant distance of 1.5m above the ground, this was used as a representation of a simple nose bleed.
At Diversicare Rehabilitation, DVCR, between the months of May and July, there were fifty-two falls. Of these falls, twenty-two resulted in major injuries and were reportable to state. All the reportable falls resulted in a form of injury. The injuries noted were ten hip fractures, five femur, three shoulder and four elbow fractures. Out of all the falls, twelve falls with major injuries occurred to residents who had suffered a fall within the past week. Two falls were reportable to the coroner but they were both ruled non-related. In this project, there will be a review of the causes of falls at DVCR. The project will review main reasons why this is such a problem at this facility. The project will focus on the preventable falls and those that may have been avoided. There will be recommendations to prevent falls and an evaluation will be done to determine whether the recommendations are effective in preventing falls.
...Mary. In his intense situation, there is no way such an act could be considered a mishap, and Bigger even feels better about himself when it is done. All of this leads to beg the questions, How much of a role do our friendly little felines play in our day to day lives? Are they still living up to their reputation today?
Many physical conditions of the race helped us understand Paulsen’s determination and love towards his dogs and how he developed personally through the race. The author illustrates his frightening moment of Happy canyon during the race. Since Paulsen wasn’t told anything specific information about Happy canyon, he was very unprepared for vertical drop down the cliff.
Feline panleukopenia is endemic to cats worldwide. The virus has been identified since the early 20th century. The virus is so severe that it was referred to as “cat plague” in earlier times when infections worldwide nearly wiped out cat populations in certain geographic areas. Now FPV rarely occurs in domestic populations in which vaccination is routinely practiced. There is a seasonality to the occurrence of FPV that usually coincides with the production of new populations of susceptible kittens. This seasonal effect may vary according to geographic location. In the northeastern United States, most cases of FPV are seen in the summer and early fall. However, outbreaks of FPV may occur at any time of the year. It is thought that feral domestic cat populations are a natural resevior for Feline panleukopenia virus.
LeMann, Nicholas. “A Call for Help: What the Kitty Genevose Story Really Means.” The New Yorker (2014): Pages. 05/06/2014
Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is one of the top five killers of domestic cats in the U.S. In fact 3% of healthy cats were reported to have contracted the disease in the year 1999. FIV is a fatal disease and interestingly enough most FIV cats don’t die of the disease it self by by other infections caused by their lowed immune system. FIV causes a deficiency in the immune system and makes cats very susceptible to a huge variety of medical problems basically because they have no fighting power.
At the “Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum,” they hold forty to fifty Polydactyl cats, which have six toes. (“Cats.”npag).
Based on the review of previous falls, the statistics indicate that falls and patient injuries have decreased from the previous year by ten percent. By utilizing evidence-based practice and synthesis of internal and external evidence the fall prevention program proved to be effective and results in increased patient safety and improved overall patient outcomes.
A common cause of accidental death in the aged population is falling. The elderly has a high risk of falls related to more than 200 risk factors. The main categories are age-related deterioration, a problem with balance, gait mobility, visual impairment, cognitive impairment, blackouts, incontinence, drug therapy, and personal hazards (Nazarko, 2011, p. 323).
This paper will explain a few of the key concepts behind the physics of skydiving. First we will explore why a skydiver accelerates after he leaps out of the plane before his jump, second we will try and explain the drag forces effecting the skydiver, and lastly we will attempt to explain how terminal velocity works.
“Circulatory disease, obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, and arthritis were each associated with a higher odds of falling, even with adjustment for drug use and other potential confounding factors” (Lawlor, Patel, & Ebrahim, 2003, p. 713). These diseases are associated with the higher odds of falling, because when someone gets these diseases, it messes them up on the inside and they cannot feel like they used to anymore. These diseases can numb a person, so that they cannot feel a limb and that is how they have the major risk of falling. In the study that was done to show the risks for falling showed in a chart that arthritis was the highest cause for falling in women. Arthritis starts to make a woman 's body start to hurt in such a way where they cannot move that much anymore and so the risk for falling gets
1 David Halliday, Robert Resnick, and Jearl Walker, Fundamentals of Physics, Extended, 5th ed. (NewYork:Wiley, 1997) 361
2) Fundamentals of Physics Extended: Fifth Edition. David Hanley, Robert Resnick, Jearl Walker. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto, Singapore. 1997.