Researchers from MIT, Virginia Tech and Princeton University have analyzedhow domestic cats and wild cats drink(tigers, lions …) using the tongue. And they have concluded that their strategy defies the laws of gravity.
Ever since MIT engineer Doc Edgerton photographed a cat drinking milk in 1940, we have known that when they use their tongues to drink, cats extend it towards the container with the curved tip, in the shape of a capital “J”, as if out of a spoon. New high-speed videos reveal that only the tip of the feline’s tongue touches the liquid. With a subtle movement, the animal manages to raise it forming a small column, which is caught with a bite at the right moment. When the cat closes its mouth, the column of liquid is broken, but its chin and whiskers remain completely dry, according to the researchers in an article published in the journalScience. The liquid column is created by adelicate balance between gravity, which pulls it back into the container, and inertia, which in physics refers to the tendency to continue moving in one direction unless another force interferes. The cat instinctively knows when and how to move its tongue to achieve balance between these two forces and drink, according to scientists.
This implies a true mastery of fluid dynamics by felines, Roman Stocker and colleagues conclude.Domestic cats move their tongues four times per second and suck 0.1 milliliters of liquid with each “lick.”. Big cats, like tigers, must suck more slowly.
“This study shows that cats are more intelligent than some people assume, at least when it comes to hydrodynamics,” says mathematician Jeff Aristoff, from Princeton University, who also participated in the study.
