No, You Still Can't Tip a Cow ... Really.

Though I've posted on this before, a recent article on Slate reiterated the hard truth, answering the question that refuses to die: "Is Cow Tipping Real".  The consensus from farmers and scientists and anyone not gullible enough to believe such nonsense is that, in spite all the "rural legends," you can't "tip a cow." Everyone seems to "know someone" who has done it. And, of course, if you could hold a cow's legs lightly in place and stabilize the body while you applied the appropriate force above the center of gravity to "tip a cow," you could do theoretically do it.  But no one has actually done this because it can't in any practical sense be done.  The legend goes that cows sleep deeply standing up and that kids "in the sticks" entertain themselves by getting drunk and then sneaking up on a cow and pushing it over. But this doesn't happen because - for all the reasons the links above provide - you can't tip a cow.