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FIRST, IT WAS all about The Dress.
Now, it’s a cat.
The internet has again become embroiled in another violent debate over an optical illusion.
A 9Gag post asks readers if the cat is walking up or down the stairs. At the time of this post, almost 4,000 comments have been made arguing about the image.
“Down because generally the wood would be flat on the horizontal portion of the stairs and the stone is on the back/vertical portion of the stairs,” said one commenter.
“It’s clearly up, you just have to imagine the camera in a different angle,” said another.
The picture shows a cat with its paw out and tail up on a set of stairs. Depending on your perspective, you can either see the cat going down with the light coming from the ceiling, or up with the light coming from the downstairs floor.
Arguments for the cat going down include the pebbled texture of the stairs and what looks like a stair lip that would only be seen from an upward perspective (with the cat descending towards the viewer.)
The light would then be coming from the ceiling.
An argument for up, however, insists that the stairs could be mosaic tile with a wooden lip, and the bright patch in the upper center of the image is light from downstairs. Viewers would then be looking down at the top of the stairs with the cat coming towards them.
While many of the comments are hung up on the appearance of the stairs, there are some people who are wrapped up in the biology of the cat’s posture, insisting that this is exactly how a cat would look if they were going either up or down the stairs, depending on the argument.
“The cat is going up, the tail is used to balance the body of the cat and in this case the tail is elevated upwards so that when the cat uses its rear legs to push up it pushes parallel to the line on which gravity is working on the tail to stabilize itself,” said one commenter.
But at the same time, the Daily Mail quotes another who said cats would raise their tail when going down the stairs to maintain their balance, but not while up.
Our opinion? The cat is clearly going up the stairs. This is how cats go downstairs:
- Megan Willet, additional reporting by Nicky Ryan
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You wouldn’t have a raised edge on the top of a step, because you would trip on it. So therefore the cat is going down, problem solved , now get back to work.
Agree fully with your logic Declan.
I was thinking because there was no banisters/safety rails shown, it was going up or that these stairs were a death trap. It looks like we are both right.
Don’t forget the sunlight. Defo going down, this cat. Naughty cat
The lip also casts a slight shadow, deeper at the edges, so it’s not a mosaic. The cat is going down
Sorry to burst your bubble Declan but it’s up!
The timber is there to hold the concrete when first pored,
Over time the concrete shrinks!
The cat is going up the stairs. Cats do not walk that way when going down stairs.
It is probably Schrödinger’s cat in the first place?
Looks like a dog to me.
But is it yellow and gold or blue and black?
The cat looks like a Sagittarius to me, and they’re more prone to going downstairs rather than up.
He is sliding down the bannisters!
Obviously down because each step has a lip, if you were going down you could trip on the lip. Plus the design is always on the front of the step and not on the actual step itself. Now! ;)
Exactly. And the pattern would be worn in the middle by people walking on it. But it isn’t worn because it is the front of the step.
Down
The cats tail is the key. Going up stairs the tail would be pointing down or flat. Going down stairs, as is the case here, the tail points up for balance.
Good man Ted
The question is, does the cat actually exist
Is it alive or dead? Or both alive and dead simultaneously until observed?
Who owns the Cat?
its Schrodinger’s cat
Ceci n’est pas un chat.
Schrödinger’s cat?
Do we know if the cat is walking forwards or backwards?
That black and blue cat in the video sure is funny.
Up
STOP IT! JUST STOP IT! *hyperventilates*
It’s going Meow.
The cat is neither going up nor down. It’s static.
The only way to know for sure is to have been present when the picture was taken. Otherwise it is merely speculation.
Even with the explanation in the article I can’t see how anyone thinks it’s going up!!
The cat is going down. You can tell by the lip on the steps.
Down ?up ? It runs across the road in front of a truck is it flat ?
I was going to say down but the video changed my mind.
No changy mindys
If it’s going down, then these are some very steep stairs.
I still think it’s going up.
Yeah but what colour is the cat?
Cat going up of course and as to ” tail up”, meaning it is going downstairs, what nonsense. Cats have their tails up when happy also.
It’s going up to come back down
Blue and white.
Obviously the cat is coming down the stairs to drink some milk on the ground floor ☺
The end of the stairs we are looking at (which the cat is walking away from) looks very like the bottom of a stairs (where the sides begin at ground level) and not the top of a stairs (where the sides almost always continue beyond the top step, even when there is no banisters present). So unless this stairs is an unmarked pit in the ground, the cat is going up.
Neither up nor down – the cat is crossing a bridge. Can’t you see that??
Definitely down. The lip is one clue and also those steps would be too shallow, not wide enough for a normal foot, if he was going up.
If the cat is going down, then those are the steepest steps I’ve ever seen. Also cats use their tails for balance. If the cat were going down then the tail is arched over its back too far for good balance.
Its up !
Down, you eejits…
Cats are lazy. He would have used the lift
The cat od coming down. Look at the shadow under its right front paw. The light comes from the top and therefore paw creates the shadow. If the cat were to go up and the light was coming from downstairs, there would have been different angle between the light and cat’s paw and that shadow wouln’t be seen below the paw.
There is almost always railings at the top of stairs. Maybe they’ve been photoshopped out. It looks a bit more like a ceiling than a floor.
The molding where the stairs meet the wall makes it look like we’re seeing them from the front, if the photo is taken from above they just look odd.
This… this is considered News? Fine… Look at the cat’s tail the cat will ALWAYS raise it’s tail in descent and lower it’s tail while climbing it’s how there balance works…
COULD THE CAT BE ACTUALLY IN REVERSE
What’s that old TV show knocking on my brain?
Upstairs Downstairs?
have your say