How much room does one need to swing a cat? What are the precise dynamics once space is acquired? Does one grip the cat by the tail or the legs? Just one leg? Do cats mind being swung?
This page aims to rectify any cat swinging questions that one may have and present them in an easy to understand manner. There is clear and easy to understand instructions. Also there are explanations behind the science of cat flinging such as centrifugal force and more.
The phrase "not enough room to swing a cat" derives from the days when sailors ruled the waves, and if they disobeyed a officer they would be punished. A popular form of punishment was the cat o nine tails which was nine whips held together by one handle, however below decks were so cramped that the user of the cat o nine tails could not whip properly. Hence the phrase "not enough room to swing a cat" was born.
The act of cat swinging as a past time was invented in the early Victorian era by Master William Stanley, a young man whom was intrigued by the work of Russian scientist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. Who would test dogs to see if he could create a reflex by introducing the right stimulus. He or his lab technicians would feed the dogs while wearing a lab coat and ring a bell, the dogs would begin to salivate at the prospect of food. Then when the bell was rung with no food the dogs still would salivate because they had developed an association with the bell and food.
Stanley then went on to try and create the same reflex in his two pet cats, who's names have sadly been lost to history. However this experiment was doomed to fail as the cats showed little interest in the sounding of a bell or the food. He then turned his attention to the self righting reflex that a cat has, in which the feline is able to, whilst falling, position itself in an upright position and land safely on its four paws. Stanley begun his tests by simply dropping the cats from varying heights ranging from 6 inches to 4 feet. He then would throw the cats in a horizontal motion to see if the air resistance would adversely affect the cats self righting reflex.
To help his studies further he created a small machine to help launch the cats in a safe and controlled manner, he named his invention 'The Catapult'. This however was soon put out of production after there was to many accidents involving cats that had been catapulted too far and had been severely injured. The idea was slowly copied after Stanley's reports into his findings were released to the general public
The average height for the U.K. male is 5’ 9.6” and the average female height is 5' 7.4" a room with a ceiling of 6" 5' would be more than adequate any shorter and the centrifugal force could force the feline into the ceiling. A humans arms are on average 3/7ths of the total height of the person. If we are to use the average male height we can calculate the length if his arms, and therefore his reach.
So the average arm length is 29.82 inches however we would have to take a few inches off as the hand would be clenched around the cat. The average length of a feline is 18 inches and the tail is 12 inches which when combined makes a full 30 inches, this is of course if the cat is stretched out to its fullest which it will be while being swung as the forces being exerted on the cat will pull it in an outwards motion, so in theory the cat could extend by a further few inches depending on the force of which it is swung.
The reach of the person is then added to the length of the cat. This then gives us a rough approximation of the area that is needed to swing the average sized cat. What if one does not have a average cat, what if it is longer or shorter? This is when the table below comes into play it was created in order for people to quickly know the area that they need instead of having to calculate themselves. The table below is a quick reference guide for occasions when a cat is required to be swung quickly, this is only to be used as an approximate guide and cannot assume that the area will be sufficient enough for the cat to be swung safely The table assumes that the cat is being held by its tail and not by its legs as the tail hold is one of the more popular holds for cat swinging.
| 24" | 26" | 28" | 30" | 32" | 34" | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4' 11" | 8' 2" | 8' 6" | 8' 10" | 9' 2" | 9' 6" | 9' 10" |
| 5' | 8' 3" | 8' 7" | 8' 11" | 9' 3" | 9' 7" | 9' 11" |
| 5' 1" | 8' 4" | 8' 8" | 9' | 9' 4" | 9' 8" | 10' |
| 5' 2" | 8' 5" | 8' 9" | 9' 1" | 9' 5" | 9' 9" | 10' 1" |
| 5' 3" | 8' 6" | 8' 10" | 9' 2" | 9' 6" | 9' 10" | 10' 2" |
| 5' 4" | 8' 7" | 8' 11" | 9' 3" | 9' 7" | 9' 11" | 10' 3" |
| 5' 5" | 8' 8" | 9' | 9' 4" | 9' 8" | 10' | 10' 4" |
| 5' 6" | 8' 9" | 9' 1" | 9' 5" | 9' 9" | 10' 1" | 10' 5" |
| 5' 7" | 8' 10" | 9' 2" | 9' 6" | 9' 10" | 10' 2" | 10' 6" |
| 5' 8" | 8' 11" | 9' 3" | 9' 7" | 9' 11" | 10' 3" | 10' 7" |
| 5' 9" | 9' | 9' 4" | 9' 8" | 10' | 10' 4" | 10' 8" |
| 5' 10" | 9' 1" | 9' 5" | 9' 9" | 10' 1" | 10' 5" | 10' 9" |
| 5' 11" | 9' 2" | 9' 6" | 9' 10" | 10' 2" | 10' 6" | 10' 10" |
| 6' | 9' 3" | 9' 7" | 9' 11" | 10' 3" | 10' 7" | 10' 11" |
| 6' 1" | 9' 4" | 9' 8" | 10' | 10' 4" | 10' 8" | 11' |
| 6' 2" | 9' 5" | 9' 9" | 10' 1" | 10' 5" | 10' 9" | 11' 1" |
| 6' 3" | 9' 6" | 9' 10" | 10' 2" | 10' 6" | 10' 10" | 11' 2" |
The two main factors that affect cat swinging is the basics of aerodynamics, lift and drag. Lift is generated when an object turns a fluid away from its direction of flow. When the object and fluid move relative to each other and the object turns the fluid flow in a direction perpendicular to that flow, the force required to do this creates an equal and opposite force that is lift.
In the case of the feline flow meeting the leading edge of the object is forced to split, over and under the object. The sudden change in direction over the object, causes an area of low pressure to form behind the leading edge on the upper surface of the object. In turn, due to this pressure gradient and the viscosity of the fluid, the flow over the object is accelerated down along the upper surface of the object. At the same time the flow forced under the object is rapidly slowed or stagnated, causing an area of high pressure. This also causes the flow to accelerate along the upper surface of the object. The two sections of the fluid each leave the trailing edge of the object with a downward component of momentum, producing lift.
Drag (sometimes called resistance) is the force that resists the movement of a solid object through a fluid (a liquid or gas). Drag is made up of friction forces, which act in a direction parallel to the objects surface (primarily along its sides, as friction forces at the front and back cancel themselves out), plus pressure forces, which act in a direction perpendicular to the objects surface. For a solid object moving through a fluid or gas, the drag is the sum of all the aerodynamic or hydrodynamic forces in the direction of the external fluid flow. (Forces perpendicular to this direction are considered lift). It therefore acts to oppose the motion of the object, and in a powered vehicle it is overcome by thrust however in the context of cat swinging the trust is provided by whomever is swinging the cat.
The question is now, how do these two forces actually affect the act of cat swinging? Lift can cause the feline to rise up dramatically and in rare cases and come into contact with the ceiling and in one peculiar case actually become lodged in the ceiling itself. Drag, commonly known as air resistance, causes the cat to slow down because the air is pushing in the opposite direction of the cat, although people have found that long haired cats are much more difficult to swing as they have a much larger area due to their large fur and so the resistance is much greater, so it is advised that a short haired or even bald cat is used.