Video Experiment Shows Why Cats Always Lands on Their Feet

Cats always land on their feet. It's one of the mysteries of the animal kingdom.

Destin decided to get to the bottom of this apparent violation of Newton's law of gravity. Watch him figure it out, with a big assist from a cat named GiGi.

Thanks to a high-speed camera, we can really see what's going on as GiGi so effortlessly flips during her short descent back to earth. Not only is it beautiful to watch, but it helps Destin figure what is going on.

As the cat falls, she bends her back. That creates different levels of torque on the two halves of her body, resulting in the gravity-defying flip when the torque evens out.

Destin (who explores the world using science on the YouTube channel Smarter Every Day) wants everybody to know that Gigi was in no way injured during the filming. How could she have been? She knew exactly what she was doing, even if he didn't.