Is It Possible To Decrease Injury Per Cat Falls?

If the number of stories a cat falls increases, then the number of injuries per cat will also decrease because the higher the height of the fall, the more time a cat has to position itself for a safe landing by distributing its body mass among a wider area to ensure a decreased impact force, and for the cat to reach its terminal velocity for stability. The table on the front page of the packet shows that one through seven stories fallen shows an increase of total injuries at an average rate of change of 0.4 injuries per story fallen. The data then plateaus at seven and eight stories, where the greatest number of injuries is 2.40. Afterwards, there is a steep decline at nine stories, where the total number of injuries per cat is only 1.10,
and it stays at this value even as the number of stories increases up to 32. Even though the first half of the data table contradicts the claim, it can be interpreted as the lesser of the number of stories recorded. Since falling from a smaller number of stories, such as two stories or seven stories, gives the organism a smaller amount of time to react before hitting the impact surface, the number of injuries would be more significant.
In other words, the cat would have little to no time to rotate its body so that it can land on its feet and evenly distribute the impact force among its four paws, resulting in lesser injury. Also, in the article Why Cats Have Nine Lives, the author Jared Diamond mentions, “Cats’ lower ratio of mass to area also means that they reach a terminal velocity of a mere 60 mph within five stories of a free fall, compared with our terminal velocity of 120 mph”. In addition, having a relatively small body mass distributed over a wider area means that the body can attain a lower terminal velocity, and that terminal velocity can be reached in a quicker amount of time to where the body is not gaining speed for the rest of the fall, giving the organism more stability to reposition itself. Also, the data given by Diamond corresponds to the data given in the table, considering that if a cat were to fall from a building that is from one to five stories tall, it would take the whole falling time to reach terminal velocity, making it harder for the cat to stabilize and resulting in further
injury. Finally, the table given on the front of the packet also shows the number of cats per stories fallen, and it can be observed that generally more cats fall from heights five stories or more, almost as if they know they will be safer if they fall from higher heights. The accumulative total for number of cats that fall between one and four stories is 49, whereas the total of fallen cats five stories and up (to 32 stories, recorded) is 77 cats. This piece of data is related to the statement given by Diamond in the sense that cats seem to know that if they fall from a height five stories or greater, they have a better chance of walking off without significant injuries. This all leads back to their terminal velocity, and how it takes a height of five stories or greater for the cats to reach the ability to balance themselves and prepare to spread their four legs as a body mass/weight distribution for an overall safer landing.