Technique
After determining down from up visually or with their vestibular apparatus (in the inner ear), cats manage to twist themselves to face downward without ever changing their net angular momentum. They are able to accomplish this with these key steps:
- Bend in the middle so that the front half of their body rotates about a different axis than the rear half.
- Tuck their front legs in to reduce the moment of inertia of the front half of their body and extend their rear legs to increase the moment of inertia of the rear half of their body so that they can rotate their front half quite far (as much as 90°) while the rear half rotates in the opposite direction quite a bit less (as little as 10°).
- Extend their front legs and tuck their rear legs so that they can rotate their rear half quite far while their front half rotates in the opposite direction quite a bit less.
Depending on the cat's flexibility and initial angular momentum, if any, the cat may need to repeat steps two and three one or more times in order to complete a full 180° rotation.
Read more about this topic: Cat Righting Reflex
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