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  3. Of cats and the laws of physics

Of cats and the laws of physics

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  • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

    Your kids bring home rats, mice, moles, and dead birds? :omg:

    Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

    C Offline
    C Offline
    Corporal Agarn
    wrote on last edited by
    #10

    OriginalGriff wrote:

    Your kids bring home rats, mice, moles, and dead birds?

    Yes it's called supper. I'll get my hat

    Mongo: Mongo only pawn... in game of life.

    OriginalGriffO J 2 Replies Last reply
    0
    • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

      I think what they are saying is the cat's understand that a box that rattles has something in it - so when that understanding fails they are surprised and stare longer. It's a bit of a stretch to get from that to "understanding physics" I agree, but the basic grasp of "noise == content" is established. And yes, cats do grasp some abstract concepts surprisingly well, and will experiment to get to a goal. We had one that learned to raid his treats - which took jumping from the third step onto the wine rack, jumping from there to the top of the cabinet, leaning over the side to chew through the rubber band keeping the door shut (so he couldn't raid his treats), dropping to the shelf below so he could push himself up under the doors to get inside the cupboard. Took him about a week to work out - had to be the third step, the second was too low, the fourth too far away - and so on. But once he'd got it fixed, it took him seconds each time.

      Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

      M Offline
      M Offline
      Mark_Wallace
      wrote on last edited by
      #11

      OriginalGriff wrote:

      the basic grasp of "noise == content" is establishe

      I'd have said it's the basic grasp of "noise == something to chase". Hunting instinct != understanding of Physics.

      I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

      L 1 Reply Last reply
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      • L Lost User

        Could someone kindly explain to me how they got from "the box that makes a noise has something inside it" to "cats understand physics"? Cats seem to grasp the laws of physics[^] Sounds like a good way to swindle research funds.

        K Offline
        K Offline
        Kent Sharkey
        wrote on last edited by
        #12

        aaryan42 wrote:

        Sounds like a good way to swindle research funds.

        More likely just, "Science reporter doesn't really understand the paper, writes headline to catch attention." You can never trust headline writers. Or blurb writers. They're all shifty. :-O

        TTFN - Kent

        M 1 Reply Last reply
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        • C Corporal Agarn

          OriginalGriff wrote:

          Your kids bring home rats, mice, moles, and dead birds?

          Yes it's called supper. I'll get my hat

          Mongo: Mongo only pawn... in game of life.

          OriginalGriffO Online
          OriginalGriffO Online
          OriginalGriff
          wrote on last edited by
          #13

          Corporal Agarn wrote:

          I'll get my hat

          Why? Are you going to pull a rabbit out of it? :laugh:

          Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

          "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
          "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

          C 1 Reply Last reply
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          • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

            Corporal Agarn wrote:

            I'll get my hat

            Why? Are you going to pull a rabbit out of it? :laugh:

            Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

            C Offline
            C Offline
            Corporal Agarn
            wrote on last edited by
            #14

            Na, just too hot for a coat. :) Besides I need a hat to keep the glare down. :-O

            Mongo: Mongo only pawn... in game of life.

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • C Corporal Agarn

              OriginalGriff wrote:

              Your kids bring home rats, mice, moles, and dead birds?

              Yes it's called supper. I'll get my hat

              Mongo: Mongo only pawn... in game of life.

              J Offline
              J Offline
              jeron1
              wrote on last edited by
              #15

              Corporal Agarn wrote:

              Yes it's called supper.

              Cue up 'Dueling Banjos'....

              "the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • K Kent Sharkey

                aaryan42 wrote:

                Sounds like a good way to swindle research funds.

                More likely just, "Science reporter doesn't really understand the paper, writes headline to catch attention." You can never trust headline writers. Or blurb writers. They're all shifty. :-O

                TTFN - Kent

                M Offline
                M Offline
                Mark_Wallace
                wrote on last edited by
                #16

                Kent Sharkey wrote:

                You can never trust headline writers.

                +5 although that's not entirely fair. Most newspapers are trustworthy sources, staffed by dedicated professionals The problem is the 83 yotta Interweb "news" sites that are staffed with semi-literate cretins who don't know what the word "journalism" means, let alone "Physics", and probably "cat".

                I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                1 Reply Last reply
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                • L Lost User

                  Could someone kindly explain to me how they got from "the box that makes a noise has something inside it" to "cats understand physics"? Cats seem to grasp the laws of physics[^] Sounds like a good way to swindle research funds.

                  Sander RosselS Offline
                  Sander RosselS Offline
                  Sander Rossel
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #17

                  Cats understand how to manipulate people in a way that we give them shelter and food; let them sit on us; let them in, then out, then in, then out again; let them wreck our furniture and won't even get mad... Ancient Egypt worshiped them. And now they have taken over the Internet. Cats understand way more than just physics, they might be aliens with an intellect vastly superior than our own! You think the Illuminati or lizards rule the world? Hell no, it's cats!

                  Read my (free) ebook Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly. Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles here on CodeProject.

                  Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra

                  Regards, Sander

                  S 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • L Lost User

                    Could someone kindly explain to me how they got from "the box that makes a noise has something inside it" to "cats understand physics"? Cats seem to grasp the laws of physics[^] Sounds like a good way to swindle research funds.

                    M Offline
                    M Offline
                    Marc Clifton
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #18

                    Cats are alien beings that telepathically send their observations back to their home world, Meow. When they stare at things longer, they're actually sending longer messages, along the lines of "humans keep proving what idiots they are." Marc

                    Imperative to Functional Programming Succinctly Contributors Wanted for Higher Order Programming Project! Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny

                    1 Reply Last reply
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                    • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                      Cats understand how to manipulate people in a way that we give them shelter and food; let them sit on us; let them in, then out, then in, then out again; let them wreck our furniture and won't even get mad... Ancient Egypt worshiped them. And now they have taken over the Internet. Cats understand way more than just physics, they might be aliens with an intellect vastly superior than our own! You think the Illuminati or lizards rule the world? Hell no, it's cats!

                      Read my (free) ebook Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly. Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles here on CodeProject.

                      Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra

                      Regards, Sander

                      S Offline
                      S Offline
                      Stephen McCafferty
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #19

                      You make a convincing argument there. Does tinfoil protect against cats?

                      Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
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                      • S Stephen McCafferty

                        You make a convincing argument there. Does tinfoil protect against cats?

                        Sander RosselS Offline
                        Sander RosselS Offline
                        Sander Rossel
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #20

                        Seems like it does[^] :laugh:

                        Read my (free) ebook Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly. Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles here on CodeProject.

                        Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra

                        Regards, Sander

                        S 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                          Seems like it does[^] :laugh:

                          Read my (free) ebook Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly. Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles here on CodeProject.

                          Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra

                          Regards, Sander

                          S Offline
                          S Offline
                          Stephen McCafferty
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #21

                          You learn something new every day.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • L Lost User

                            Could someone kindly explain to me how they got from "the box that makes a noise has something inside it" to "cats understand physics"? Cats seem to grasp the laws of physics[^] Sounds like a good way to swindle research funds.

                            K Offline
                            K Offline
                            kdmote
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #22

                            I finished watching a random Monty Python video just prior to reading this thread, so naturally I read all these comments in the various voices of the Python troupe. It was extraordinarily entertaining, what with all the non-sequiters and whatnot. "That's not a cat license. That's a dog license with the word 'dog' crossed off and 'cat' written in crayon."

                            1 Reply Last reply
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                            • L Lost User

                              Could someone kindly explain to me how they got from "the box that makes a noise has something inside it" to "cats understand physics"? Cats seem to grasp the laws of physics[^] Sounds like a good way to swindle research funds.

                              J Offline
                              J Offline
                              jhog
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #23

                              Dog: man's best friend Man: cat's best friend

                              1 Reply Last reply
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                              • M Mark_Wallace

                                OriginalGriff wrote:

                                the basic grasp of "noise == content" is establishe

                                I'd have said it's the basic grasp of "noise == something to chase". Hunting instinct != understanding of Physics.

                                I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                                L Offline
                                L Offline
                                Lost User
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #24

                                My dog likes to chase photons on the floor.

                                M 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • L Lost User

                                  Could someone kindly explain to me how they got from "the box that makes a noise has something inside it" to "cats understand physics"? Cats seem to grasp the laws of physics[^] Sounds like a good way to swindle research funds.

                                  M Offline
                                  M Offline
                                  Member 12023988
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #25

                                  Because without some grasp of physics there's no way for cats to make the predictions they do. Duh.

                                  Quote:

                                  Sounds like a good way to swindle research funds.

                                  Only to someone who knows nothing about the field science and how and why research is done.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • L Lost User

                                    My dog likes to chase photons on the floor.

                                    M Offline
                                    M Offline
                                    Mark_Wallace
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #26

                                    So he understands about lasers, batteries, optics, etc. That's good. You should write a paper about it.

                                    I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                                    L 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • M Mark_Wallace

                                      So he understands about lasers, batteries, optics, etc. That's good. You should write a paper about it.

                                      I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                                      L Offline
                                      L Offline
                                      Lost User
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #27

                                      She's looking for a translator.

                                      M 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • L Lost User

                                        She's looking for a translator.

                                        M Offline
                                        M Offline
                                        Mark_Wallace
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #28

                                        Great! Sort one out, and let her do all the work! You can just rake in all the money, because money has nothing to do with Physics, so cats don't understand it.

                                        I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • L Lost User

                                          Could someone kindly explain to me how they got from "the box that makes a noise has something inside it" to "cats understand physics"? Cats seem to grasp the laws of physics[^] Sounds like a good way to swindle research funds.

                                          K Offline
                                          K Offline
                                          Kiriander
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #29

                                          It's not swindling at all. It shows that cats have a natural intuition about how things work. You don't think much of it because it's absolutely normal for us humans to have it. Not so much for animals though.

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