Greg Gbur discusses why cats always land on their feet

March 9, 2026
Categories: In the News, Physics and Optical Science, Research
Cover of Greg Gbur's book "Falling Felines & Fundamental Physics"

Greg Gbur, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Physics and Optical Science, was featured in the New York Times and NewScientist to discuss why falling cats always seem to land on their feet. 

Gbur is the author of the book “Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics” (Yale University Press, 2019), which explores this question. He traces the history of physicists perplexed by cats’ ability to land on their feet, beginning with the first scientific paper on the subject in 1700.

“Physicists in particular love to look for simple models of how things work, whereas nature tends to look for the most effective method, which may not be simple,” Gbur said. “Cats are complicated creatures doing complicated motions.”

Theories

Three main theories have emerged:

  • The propeller tail — The cat swings its tail one way, causing its body to rotate the other way.
  • The bend-and-twist — The cat bends its body almost into a right angle, then turns its front half one direction and its back half the opposite direction.
  • The tuck-and-turn — The cat extends its rear legs while keeping its front legs scrunched up, rotates its front half, then swaps positions by extending its front legs and scrunching its rear legs to rotate its rear half.

New study

Gbur believes the tail is least important, as cats without tails can still turn over and land on their feet. A new study led by Yasuo Higurashi at Yamaguchi University in Japan tested how far the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae could rotate, finding that the thoracic spine had a range of motion triple that of the lumbar spine. In addition, their high‑speed video footage showed cats finishing the rotation of their front half tens of milliseconds before the rear half.

“My general impression has been that the bend-and-twist is the most important, but this paper actually makes me reassess a bit and give a little bit more credence to the tuck-and-turn,” Gbur said. “It really does look like the upper part of the body is properly oriented first.”

Read more in The New York Times and NewScientist.