they would need
some sort of contoured cage to prevent the bottom ones being crushed. A regular, albeit small cage would not suffice.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 9:50, 2 replies)

But this is science
therefore you can make approximations.

The first of which is 'assume the kittens are rigid spheres'...
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 9:55, closed)

i had them as
rigid cylinders. but cute ones.
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 9:58, closed)

And don't forget to put them in a vacuum

(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 11:16, closed)

leading to a variation of the punchline of my favorite ever joke
"But of course, that only works for a spherical horse in a vacuum..."
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 12:35, closed)

I love that joke
Yay for science geekiness! :D
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Tue 6 Jul 2010, 15:29, closed)

But .......
They would only crush up to a point, being for the most part, an incompressible liquid. This would make the calculations easier, although one would have to define a "standard" kitten.Perhaps this could be achieved by blending a specific number kittens into a pulp and calculate the average.
(M61A1 CUPID- STUNTS, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 10:29, closed)

hmmm
*ponders the non-newtonian fluid behaviour of kittens and wonders about writing a grant on it*
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 10:42, closed)

The fluid is probably compressible
to some degree. You need to factor this into the model.

What's the SI unit of kittens? The fluff, perhaps?
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Fri 2 Jul 2010, 14:06, closed)

Perhaps an alternative could be
to get a reasonable representative sample of kittens and use water displacement (ensure that said kittens are kept under water long enough to allow the water to settle) to measure the volume of each kitten, from this you can calculate an average to arrive at a "standard kitten" volume. The handy thing about this is that, once calculated the "standard kitten" may then be applied in almost any situation requiring a measurement of volume.
(M61A1 CUPID- STUNTS, Sat 3 Jul 2010, 10:15, closed)