Maybe youre right, but your example is not a good one. Your problem reduces to, does 1m of rope provide enough to cover a cat? You actually have greater than 1m

Maybe youre right, but your example is not a good one. Your problem reduces to, does 1m of rope provide enough to cover a cat? You actually have greater than 1m of rope since the cat has width. Maybe a better example is, what is the best way to accelerate a ball horizontally from a fixed height? IE how can we most efficiently translate potential energy to kinetic energy in the horizontal direction?