a cat is placed in a sealed box with unstable gun power that could go off at any time without us knowing, therefore killing the cat. since we can only know if the cat is dead by opening the box, our observation effects the outcome, making the cat both alive and dead simultaneously.
share your thoughts...
p.s. and i know this isn't the original experiment, this way is a bit simpler to understand initially. this is einstein's take, i know Schrödinger used radioactive material and a geiger counter.
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Moore questions on Schrodinger's cat?
Come on.
Schrodinger actually invented this thought experiment to criticize the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum mechanics, which implies that the cat's wave function would be in a superposition of live and dead states until it is observed, something which is objectively ridiculous.
It is important to note that "observation" in quantum mechanics does not mean "looking," it means something closer to "interacting," An electron that bumps into another electron, for example, is "observed," by that electron at least, and its wave function collapses at that moment into one state. So, in Schrodinger's experiment, the cat's atoms, being so close to each other, automatically collapse each other's wave functions immediately.
It should also be said that all interpretations of quantum mechanics are just ways of trying to describe the same mathematical ideas using different metaphors that people can understand. There is nothing substantially different between the Copenhagen, Multiple Worlds, Ensemble or any other interpretaions, except for the way we think about them.
AV, Your change to the experiment makes it easy. The cat is alive unless there is a sudden bang with smoke. If we were relying on the quantum trigger for a vial of poison, the one thing we cannot say is that the cat is simultaneously both dead and alive. We can only say there is a 50-50 chance that the cat is alive or the cat is dead.