Those who have tackled the problem as a thought experiment (meaning, no cats were harmed) have come to the conclusion that the buttered cat would stop falling at some point above the floor. Then, as the cat tries to orient its feet against the attraction of the butter to the floor, the cat would begin spinning -and never stop. The result could be called a true perpetual motion machine.
The claim is that the kinetic energy of the buttered (or jellied) cat is converted into rotational energy as the cat hovers; in that sense it is not necessarily an over-unity device since the cat could then slow down as you tapped into that energy.
Hints of extraordinary doings:
The Physics Teacher 34(5) 288 (1996)
Scientific American 273(6) 104 (1995)
European Journal of Physics 16(4) 172 (1995)
Buttered bread launched from table tops lands buttered side down. Always. Cats land on their feet. Always. Strap a buttered piece of bread buttered side to a cat’s belly and drop the construct. Will the universe be caught in a conundrum?
The living construct is vigorously excluded from a gravitational field. (Don’t try this at home unless you like the smells of scorched cat fur and vaporized neighborhood).
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/bovine.htm
Video is AWOL.
Dang, they pulled it. Too bad, it’s pretty funny.