Uploaded November 2010 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

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Physical model of a cat lapping. The physical experiments consisted of lifting a glass disk from the surface of water. The disk was initially in contact with the free surface of a water bath and was moved upward by a motorized linear stage. As the disk moved upward, the liquid column was imaged from the side with a high-speed digital camera at 1000 frames/s and is here shown at 15 frames/s (i.e. slowed down 67 times). The physical parameters were: R =12.7 mm, H = 30 mm, UMAX = 50 cm/s, where R is the radius of the disk, H is the maximum height of travel and UMAX is the maximum speed attained.

Read the full story at:
discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/how-the-cat-that-got-the-cream-then-drank-it

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Video courtesy of Pedro M. Reis, Sunghwan Jung, Jeffrey M. Aristoff and Roman Stocker

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