Not really. The way I understand it is that, while a cat can die from any fall, they tend to receive less damage after reaching terminal velocity if they fall from a height of at least six stories, which naturally increases their chances of surviving the fall. A closer distance to the ground means that the cats don't have enough time to relax, causing them to hit the ground with their muscles tensed, which can increase injuries received when they land.

Alternatively, the wikipedia article mentioned the possibility that, due to a cat's righting reflex, the cat naturally flattens itself, thereby increasing drag and possibly lowering its terminal velocity to a survivable speed.

Exactly!

edited 3rd Feb '12 2:51:25 PM by Winglerfish

In short: cats are good at cheating by using a different rule book. In this case, friction and distribution vs tensed-up splat.

edited 3rd Feb '12 2:22:04 PM by Euodiachloris

So, felines don't play havoc with the laws of physics?

Nope. No creature does. They just play with all the rules. That includes the rules Physicists have yet to work out. As well as the ones they forgot to apply to the case when they first looked.

And another thing; how and why did this ridiculous derail occur?

Poor wording by Major Tom on the previous page (at least I hope it was poor wording).

It's not a total derail. After all, the same cheats cats and some 'impossible' dinosaurs use to, well, live... could well apply to any creature that could evolve under high G. It could easily find a set of rules that say it can do it, and doesn't have to bother with the ones that said it can't. All totally legit.

edited 3rd Feb '12 5:31:10 PM by Euodiachloris

^^ Might've been.

Obviously, what Tom needs to do is change his story to feature feline quadrupeds and rename it something like Space Cats. Obviously.

^ Maybe for a different book.

Well, we got a T. S. Eliot reference out of it, so there's something.

In my SF verse, high-gravity planets (1.2 g and up) are populated by heavyworlder pantropic parahumans, who are very dwarf-like in appearance, short and stocky.

I have a gigantic planet with ridiculously high gravity in one of my stories, something akin to 87 bazillion G but it's inhabitants are physical god-level sufficiently advanced aliens so things like the square/cube law doesn't really apply to them.

Sounds more like a, well, black hole, than any sort of planet.