Simple Physics

Yes, I am working on my PhD. No, I am not a science major. Nor am I a math major. But I can handle really simple physics. Like this physics problem that I stumbled across yesterday.

You may recall back in June we fostered a mama cat, and five kittens were born. Or maybe you recall my talking about how having kittens in the house is kind of like having toddlers. Well, those cute little kittens are now six months old, and almost as big as our adult cats. Unfortunately, one of them has developed the habit of jumping up on anything and everything. He especially likes stuffed animals, so everything in the house with stuffing (including my Pal Mickey) has had to move to the closet for awhile.

So what does this have to do with physics, you ask? Yesterday I heard a crash of falling plastic in my bathroom/laundry room. The room looks like this:

Note that up on top of the cabinet is the plastic insert for my dryer - you know, the one you put sneakers on if you want to dry them in the dryer. I've had the dryer for nine years now, and haven't used that gizmo once, but I still keep it handy in the laundry room! As you may have guessed, Pepper jumped up on the cabinet tops, hit the plastic, and down it came.

I looked on top of the cabinets, but no guilty cat eyes were staring back at me. No guilty kitten ran out of the bathroom. No kitten was hiding behind the dryer. What happened to that darn cat?

Look at the photo again - notice that if the plastic insert tips up the trajectory is straight into the shower stall. And when I moved the hamper in front of the shower door, and opened the shower door, there was a guilty looking, frightened, but thankfully unhurt kitten.

I don't think he'll try that again. Maybe I ought to put plastic launch pads on top of all of my cabinets!