What is Buttered cat paradox?
[[File:Buttered cat.png|thumb|A cartoon illustration of the paradox]] The '''buttered cat paradox''' is a popular [[joke]] based on putting two [[wikt:adage|adages]] (sayings) together to make them funny: * [[Cat righting reflex|Cats always land on their feet]]. * Buttered toast always lands buttered side down. The [[paradox]] happens when one asks this question: What would happen if one [[wikt:attach|attached]] a piece of [[butter]]ed [[toast]] (butter side up) to the back of a cat, then dropped the cat from a large [[height]]? == In reality == In [[reality]], cats can turn themselves right side up in mid-air if they should fall upside-down. This is named the [[cat righting reflex]]. This reflex lets them land on their feet if dropped from high enough up (about {{Convert|30|cm|in|abbr=off}}).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://helix.gatech.edu/Classes/ME3760/1998Q3/Projects/Nguyen/ |title=How does a Cat always land on its feet? |first=Huy D. |last=Nguyen |date=1998 |publisher=Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Medical Engineering |access-date=6 December 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010410235503/http://helix.gatech.edu/Classes/ME3760/1998Q3/Projects/Nguyen/ |archive-date=10 April 2001}}</ref> Toast, not being alive, does not have the [[wikt:ability|ability]] to turn itself over. Nor does it want to, since it cannot think. Toast usually lands on the floor butter-side-down. This is because of how it is dropped from a [[table (furniture)|table]]. As the toast falls from the table, it [[rotate]]s or turns. Using the average [[speed]] of rotation for a slice of toast as it falls from the table and the usual [[height]] of a table, a slice of toast that began butter-side-up on the table will land butter-side-down on the floor 81% of the time. This is because the buttered side is heavier. When an object has a heavy and light side, in most cases it will fall heavy side first.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2410532/Why-toast-falls-butter-Scientist