I've heard of it but don't actually know what it is. Inform me flood.
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Schrodinger needed an excuse to kill cats.
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Interestingly, he made that thought experiment in order to criticize the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. He himself of course believed in the superposition notion, as his wave equation made its existence a logical certainty. He didn't like how Hiesenburg and Bohr where interpretating the data, implying that direct observation is what broke the wave-function and reduced the state from superposition to observed position. The book is still out on which interpretation is accurate, or in this case best describes the analytical method by which we determine quantum states. The only thing they're pretty sure of in this scenario is that cat scale objects don't exist in a superposition, and that the math involved is solid and self-consistent.
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It's essentially a thought experiment on quantum superposition. A cat in locked inside of a box with a tiny piece of radioactive material and vile of poison set to be released if a Geiger counter detects radioactivity from the material, which is so small that there is a 50/50 chance that an atom would decay within an hour. Now radiation is a type of light, and light is a part of the strange quantum world, in that it exists in all possible states at once until is observed, when the act of observation forces it to take a specific random form. So long as the light is not observed, it is simultaneously existing in all possible states, including remaining bound to the atom and setting off the Geiger counter, meaning that in turn the cat is also simultaneously alive and dead until someone observes it since it's life depends on the position of the photon. The whole point of the exercise is to apply quantum mechanics to macroscopic level in order to demonstrate how strange the quantum level is, and how little we understand about it.
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cat was box then poison Shcrödinger says dead no
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It represents the theory of superposition. A cat is placed in a box with a vial of radioactive poison. The vial is controlled by a hammer detonation mechanism. If any of the poison decays once the box is closed the hammer will break the vial and the cat will die. Since we don't know what happens until we reopen the box we have to assume the cat is both alive and dead. It is more applicable on a subatomic level than macroscopic. Subatomic particles have been shown to be in multiple places at once. On an observable level, it doesn't make sense unless you apply it to solipsism.
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1 ReplyCat in Box Poison in Box that can kill cat Don't know if cat ate poison Have to assume cat is both alive and dead at same time and won't know for certain until box is opened and cat is observed.
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1 ReplyEdited by Steveokiller: 11/29/2013 7:17:18 AMYou put a cat in a box,poison is released and at any one instance the cat is both alive and dead at the same time.