According to recent research, cats are better physicists, when it comes to drinking that is. Scientists have uncovered that when dogs drink, they merely use their long tongue as a scoop; as for the cat, they have much sophisticated matters. First, the dip the tip of their tongue in the liquid, quickly bringing it up to pull it closer. Then they close their jaw severing the liquid column before it succumbs to the laws of gravity and fall back down into the bowl. But what is most surprising about this all, is that the cats already have the knowledge programmed into their system to know how rapidly they must lap.
This scientific research had all began when Roman Stocker's cat began to consume breakfast. Then Stocker wondered,"How does he do that?" So he borrowed a high speed camera and video taped his cat drinking water. Stocker took that video, along with several others of wild cats drink water, and analyzed it. He and the other researchers noticed that cats and dog lap up water very differently. Both species would extend their tongue and curl them back towards the chin. This is where the similarity ends. The dogs tongue acts as a ladle spooning up water as it comes back up. The cats tongue however, would stay empty. Only the tops of the cats tongue would touch the surface. As the cats tongue pulls out of the water, the inertia of the movement draws water up. During that time, gravity is also pulling the column down. As these opposing forces stretch the column, the cat then closes it's mouth at the right moment and it gets a mouth full of water before the water falls.
