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It appears that humans are not the only ones who understand how the simple laws of physics work. According to a team of Japanese researchers, cats understand the law of cause and effect and they apply it whenever they are on a hunt for new prey.
What’s In the Box?
In order to see if the felines are actually connoisseurs of the laws of physics, the team of Japanese scientists conducted a wide variety of experiments.
First, they took a part of the thirty domesticated cats sample and showed them some boxes. They measured the average amount of attention that the cats paid to the objects before moving on to “more pressing matter.”
Then, they started shaking the boxes. First, they shook the empty boxes and recorded the response of the whiskered participants.
Then, they introduced something in some of the boxes so that they rattled when they were shaken. When the noisy containers were then introduced to the cats, the felines were more than curious to see what was enclosed in them.
The researchers noted that the time in which the cats paid attention to the rattling containers was significantly longer than that spent watching the empty ones. This would prove the fact that cats understand the law of cause and effect and they apply it to real situations all of the time.
According to this elementary physics rule, if the box made no noise, then it was evident it was empty. If it rattled, it meant that there was something in it. The noise was caused by a hidden object inside the sealed enclosure.
Why Isn’t Anything In The Box?
After seeing that they react differently to the noisy boxes, the researchers started testing their understanding of the law of gravity.
The team let the participants rest for a while and then brought them back to the boxes. They showed them the rattling containers and tipped them over.
When something actually fell from the noisy objects, the cats went to investigate the matter, acting like they were not at all surprised by the outcome.
However, when the researchers tilted a rattling box, and nothing came out, the felines were surprised. They waited for something to happen for a longer period of time, expecting for the cause (the noise) to have an effect (something falling from the box that was apparently harboring a hidden object).
So it seems that cats understand the law of cause and effect and they use it in their nocturnal hunting sessions.
Image source: Pixabay
