Why do cats purr? Because we can. It makes us feel good, and it pleases our Humans -- they find our purring comforting. Superstitious sorts even believe that our purr has special healing powers. And now physics has found a possible explanation for why the sound of the purr is so pleasant, along with evidence that there might be something to that old wives' tale.
Basically, scientists decided to measure a cat's purr acoustically and analyze how the vibration spreads through the body. They did this by attaching the world's smallest accelerometers -- about the size of a matchstick -- directly to the skin of the cats, attaching them with washable glue and medical tape, and recording the sounds.
The result: we fabulous felines purr between 20 Hz and 200 Hz frequency range -- a known "therapeutic" range. Most effective is between 25-50 Hz, followed by between 100-200 Hz. They speculate that cats evolved their purring ability to promote healing after a long day's hunting.
Our secret is out.
1 comment:
Hello, Clio! I am very pleasantly surprised to see that you now have your own blog though I suppose that it was only a matter of time. I wish you the best of luck and I look forward to reading about the ruminations of the feline mind. In fact, I was just having a conversation today with someone about the science of purring, and many questions were left unanswered. I will be passing along your report on purring to my inquisitive friend.
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