File under “God’s Amazing Handiwork.” With the help of very high speed photography, scientists at last discover that the humble action of a cat’s lapping water is actually a marvel of physics.
What happens is that the cat darts out its tongue, curving the upper side downward so that the tip lightly touches the surface of the water.
The tongue is then pulled upward at high speed, drawing a column of water up behind it.
Just at the moment that gravity finally overcomes the upward rush of the water and starts to pull the column down — snap! The cat’s jaws have closed over the jet of water and swallowed it.
The cat laps four times a second — too fast for the human eye to see but a blur — and its tongue moves at a speed of one meter per second.
Unsurprisingly, as the article points out, cats handle the task of drinking with more class and elegance than dogs. That’s science! That’s not even my opinion.
