The buttered cat paradox is a common joke based on the combination of two

adage An adage (; Latin: adagium) is a memorable and usually philosophical aphorism that communicates an important truth derived from experience, custom, or both, and that many people consider true and credible because of its longeval tradition, i.e. ...

s: * Cats always land on their feet. * Buttered toast always lands buttered side down. The

paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...

arises when one considers what would happen if one attached a piece of buttered toast (butter side up) to the back of a cat, then dropped the cat from a large height. The buttered cat paradox, submitted by artist John Frazee of

Kingston, New York Kingston is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with t ...

, won a 1993 '' Omni'' magazine competition about paradoxes. The basic premise, stating the conditions of the cat and bread and posed as a question, was presented in a routine by comic and juggler Michael Davis, appearing on ''

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He is ...

'', July 22, 1988.

Thought experiments

Some people jokingly maintain that the experiment will produce an

anti-gravity Anti-gravity (also known as non-gravitational field) is a hypothetical phenomenon of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to ...

effect. They propose that as the cat falls towards the ground, it will slow down and start to rotate, eventually reaching a

steady state In systems theory, a system or a Process theory, process is in a steady state if the variables (called state variables) which define the behavior of the system or the process are unchanging in time. In continuous time, this means that for those p ...

of hovering a short distance from the ground while rotating at high speed as both the buttered side of the toast and the cat's feet attempt to land on the ground. In June 2003, Kimberly Miner won a

Student Academy Award The Student Academy Awards are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in an annual competition for college and university filmmakers. Description The awards were originally named the Student Film Awards and were first ...

for her film ''Perpetual Motion''. Miner based her film on a paper written by a high-school friend that explored the potential implications of the cat and buttered toast idea.

In humor

The faux paradox has captured the imagination of science-oriented

humorist A humorist (American) or humourist (British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business e ...

s. In May 1992, the Usenet Oracle Digest #441 included a question from a supplicant asking about the paradox. Testing the theory is the main theme in an episode of the

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

strip ''

Jack B. Quick ''Tomorrow Stories'' was an American comic book series created by Alan Moore for his America's Best Comics (ABC) line, published by Wildstorm (now a subsidiary of DC Comics). Overview ''Tomorrow Stories'' started in August 1999 as a collection ...

''. The title character seeks to test this theory, leading to the cat hovering above the ground and the cat's wagging tail providing propulsion. The March 31, 2005, strip of the

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

Bunny Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit spec ...

'' also explored the idea in the guise of a plan for a "Perpetual Motion MoggieToast 5k Power Generator", based on

Sod's law Sod's law, a British culture axiom, states that "if something ''can'' go wrong, it will". The law sometimes has a corollary: that the misfortune will happen at "the worst possible time" ( Finagle's law). The term is commonly used in the United K ...

. In ''Science Askew'', Donald E. Simanek comments on this phenomenon. Brazilian energy drink brand

Flying Horse The following is a list of fictional or mythological winged horses. Mythology *The ancient Pegasus is a mythological winged horse. *The Hippalectryon is a half-horse, half-rooster hybrid depicted in ancient Greek art. *Devadatta is the win ...

released a 2012 award-winning commercial that simulates the recreation of this phenomenon, which is then used to create perpetual energy.

In reality

Cats possess the ability to turn themselves right side up in mid-air if they should fall upside-down, known as the

cat righting reflex The cat righting reflex is a cat's innate ability to orient itself as it falls in order to land on its feet. The righting reflex begins to appear at 3–4 weeks of age, and is perfected at 6–9 weeks. Cats are able to do this because they have a ...

. This enables them to land on their feet if dropped from sufficient height. Toast, being an inanimate object, lacks both the ability and the desire to right itself. A study at

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

involving dropping 100 slices under laboratory conditions established that toast typically lands on the floor butter-side-down as a result of the manner in which it is typically dropped from a table, and the aerodynamic drag caused by the air pockets within the bread. The toast is typically butter-side-up when dropped. As it falls, it rotates; given the typical speed of rotation and the typical height of a table, a slice of toast that began butter-side-up on the table will land butter-side-down on the floor in 81% of cases.

References

External links

* {{cite journal, date=16 November 1996, title=Feedback, journal=

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, issue=2056, url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15220568.300
Loopholes for the paradox
Butter Cats in popular culture Cultural conventions Humour Paradoxes Thought experiments

Thought experiments

In humor

In reality

See also

References

External links