King of speed, cheetah is undoubtedly the fastest land animal on earth but still how fast can a cheetah run ? This born to run machine can easily reach speeds off about 70 mph (113 kph) and all it takes for a cheetah to reach its potential is a few strides. Its built for speed body speeds at 10 meters per second and boosts up to 40 mph (64 kph) in about three strides.
But still how fast can a cheetah run, 70mph…and how fast in reality is that ?? The comparison is as follows:
- Ferrari Enzo accelerates up at 8.0 meters per second, which boosts it from 0 to 60 mph in about 3.5 seconds.
- Corvette Twin accelerates at 7.1 meters per second.
- The best racehorses can run at about 40 miles an hour , In fact the fastest a racehorse has ever run is just over 43 miles an hour.
- The running speed of the fastest human is about 23 miles an hour.
The above comparison unquestionably gives us an idea of how fast can a cheetah run. It is clear that the cheetah is faster than most of the modern racing cars but even the king of speed has its own weakness. The born to run machine in spite of being fastest often lose their kill to a larger animal as it is not able to sustain its speed for long. Due to the huge aerodynamic pressure that comes from the speed, a cheetah can at most run at its top speed for about 600 yards (550 meters) ,exactly why the chase of the cheetah is less than 30 seconds.
Cheetahs frequently lose their kill to a larger animal because they need rest before eating. This is because the cheetah has to stop at regular intervals as such increase in its body temperature could be extremely fatal. Such overheating could easily result in permanent brain damage. It is precisely what we humans feel when we jog, sprint or do some intense exertion just to a much lesser extent as compared to the cheetah.Cheetah even though being the fastest land animal still is incapable to defend itself, specially after humans have taken over their habitat, there population has decreased and now even inbreeding seems to fail.
The above article does describe how fast can a cheetah run but the actual mechanics behind the speed of the speed king can be found here.
