SC8

KLMNO

SUNDAY, MAY 16, 2010

Dear Ray, Cats purr awake or asleep, when they relax and just when they want to, I guess, because it feels so good.

Research at agribusiness universities is very expensive. Unless the research is connected to a product to sell, basic research on cats can be slow in getting to QED. Look up QED for me. OK?

Beakman or Jax

B

1130 Walnut Street Kansas City, MO 64106

Google: Cheshire cat cheese

Questions, name & address

Listen Here

WHAT YOU NEED: 2 empty soda pop bottles that are the same size - your sweet self

WHAT TO DO:

Hold one bottle at your lower lip and the other bottle with its mouth up at your ear. Blow across the lower bottle until you make it whistle. Listen to the bottle that's at your ear. Yow and yikes! How did that happen?

Blow Here

Beakman Place

WHAT IS GOING ON:

The second bottle whistled even though you were vibrating the air in the first bottle. We call that a sympathetic

resonance. The whistle was at just the right pitch to vibrate the air in the second bottle.

When cats purr, they are vibrating flaps in their voice box 25 times a second – opening and closing the cords.

That creates a vibrating column of air. Like your soda bottle, the vibrations are at just the right speed to vibrate the muscles beneath the cat's chest. That makes it seem as though the sound is coming from 2 places at the same time, from the neck and the chest.

Researchers at the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine also found that cats purr on purpose when they want to, not just when they relax. Wouldn’t you?

All kinds of cats purr, from big ones all the way down to tiny kittens. A bit more surprising is that elephants purr, too, as do some rabbits and raccoons, and I would too, if I could.

Purring seems to come from more than

one place in a cat. So science looked in both spots.

The old view was a flap near a blood vessel in the lower chest vibrated.

Many researchers don’t think so now, thinking that purring comes from flaps near a cat's voice box – or larynx (LAR-inks) – that vibrate when relaxed.

The other purring

sound coming from a cat's chest is likely one

of those cool sympathetic vibrations, like in your soda bottle thingy.

SLYLOCKFOX

By Bob Weber Jr.

myQuestion@beakman.com

© 2010 Jok Church—Dist. by Universal Uclick 5-16-10

P.S. from Jax: Purring is not just about being happy. Cats purr when they are frightened or fighting, when giving birth and also when feeding their kittens.

Dear Beakman,

How do cats purr? Is it automatic or on purpose? Awake, asleep?

Ray Larson

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