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Why is it when oil prices were $110/barrel I paid $4/gallon at the pump, but now that they are $60/barrel I pay $3/gallon at the pump?
That is only the price of crude oil, which still needs to be refined in order to be used in your car. The price of crude oil is not going to be exactly proportional to the price of gasoline because the costs to process the crude oil haven’t necessarily gone down.
– CrabCakeSmoothie
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How Can Cats Can Survive Falls From Great Heights?
First, cats have a high body surface area in proportion to their weight, reducing the pressure to their bodies when they hit the ground (because pressure equals force divided by area).
Second, because of their surface area and their low weight they reach terminal velocity, or the speed at which the pull of gravity is matched by wind resistance, much quicker than larger animals like humans. This means that they fall at a slower speed and subsequently hit the ground with less force. Again via the BBC:
For instance, an average-sized cat with its limbs extended achieves a terminal velocity of about 60mph (97km/h), while an average-sized man reaches a terminal velocity of about 120mph (193km/h), according to the 1987 study by veterinarians Wayne Whitney and Cheryl Mehlhaff.
Though we see cats usually living in someone’s house, cats are traditionally arboreal animals (they live in trees). Because sooner of later they are bound to fall, and any tree-dwelling animal will eventually pounce for prey and miss, cats are evolutionarily adapted to survive falls. That is to say, it is evolutionarily beneficial to be able to survive a fall, and as such modern house cats retain this ancestral adaptation.
Third, again through natural selection, cats have what is called aerial righting reflex which allows them to, given enough time, sense that they are falling incorrectly and spin themselves around like a sky diver or astronaut so that their feet are facing the ground. Having your main shock absorbers hit the ground instead of your back is crucial for fall survival. Interestingly, every animal that lives in the trees has a similar reflex, suggesting the same evolutionary process. You can see a shot by shot view of the aerial righting reflex below.
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The shot by shot view of the aerial righting reflex that allows cats to pretty much always land on their feet. Also notice how in the last section of the fall pictured about that the cat is extending its legs and arching the back. This allows the cat to absorb more force once it hits the ground. Both a straight back and unprepared legs will most likely increase the risk of injury for the cat.
Fourth, cats also spread out their legs when they fall (as seen in the first picture above), increasing their surface area and slowing their descent by increasing the air’s drag on their bodies. Just how much this action slows their descent is unclear.
Fifth, cats have long muscular legs, adapted for climbing trees, that act as great shock absorbers. The same large muscles that allow them to jump many times their own height allows them to divert energy into decelerating them once they hit the ground instead of breaking bones. Because much of what is destructive about a collision is how rapidly a body decelerates, having long, springy legs allows cats to decelerate more slowly, thus reducing the seriousness of the collision.
– Science Based Life
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What is the reality and truth behind the ads that say “Earn $5,000 per week while working at home.”
The truth is almost all of those require you to purchase products from a company and then resell them to whoever you can (normally family and friends). They have many ways of hiding this fact for as long as possible but almost all of them come down that simple concept.
“Buy our product and resale it for more than you bought it for.”
– Dicktremain
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