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Cats: are they considered solid or liquid?

4 cats taking the shapes pf the containers they're in

Because cats conform to the container they're in, a French physicist has actually done a formal study of that very important question.

Marc-Antoine Fardin, has not only conducted that study, but also won an Ig Nobel Prize for using mathematical formulas to determine whether cats are liquid or solid.

The Ig Nobel Prize is intended to make people laugh.

Turns out the Ig Nobel prize is awarded yearly from an organization called Improbable Research, which is an organization dedicated to science and humor. Their goal is to share scientific studies that have a sense of humor, something we can all benefit from.

In Fardin's official research paper, he documents the many factors that went into his study, including:

  • relaxation time,
  • experimental time,
  • the type of container, and
  • the cat's degree of stress.

His conclusion is that cats can be considered either liquid or solid, depending on the circumstances.

Send us photos of your own research!

If you have photos of your cat becoming liquid, feel free to send, or email, them to us. You never know where they might end up, but we'd love to see photos of your beautiful feline! (Officially known as "A small domesticated carnivorous mammal with soft fur, a short snout, and retractile claws.")

Watch the portion of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony,  where Marc-Antoine Fardin gets his award and shares his research. Click the video below and it will jump right to the section where the Physics prize, for his cat research, is awarded. Enjoy