SRL Archive - Discussions & Debates

Schrodingers Cat


Ejjman

2009-08-13 02:34:55

I have seen this phrase pop up time and time again, and I always go to wikipedia and try to figure out what the mumbo jumbo means. After reading about Quantum Physics and the everything, I can still not figure out a simple way to explain it. I can't figure out if the cat is dead or alive, and how it is both. Is anyone expert in this area and can explain how it works?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrodingers_cat


Thanks…


EDIT: And even if I do figure it out, what is its importance of society and a big deal.

Harry

2009-08-13 02:57:19

The cat is in a box, and there is a radioactive metal that has a 50% chance of releasing a toxin will definitely kill the cat, and a 50% the toxin not being released, not killing the cat. Since the box is closed and we cannot see the fate of the cat, it is both dead and alive. Only by observation that one of the outcomes will be achieved.

While the cat is in the box, it is both dead and not dead (because you can't prove either). The only way to know for sure is if you open the box.

I think I am correct. Prove me wrong.

ZaSz

2009-08-13 03:04:58

Harry is right. That's why you hear about it sometimes in every day scenerios. It was even on the big bang theory (a comedy show about nerd people. Not real facts) (tv).

So if you want to do something in life, like gaming, and you havent played games now, you can look at it like you fail at games, or your a master. You wont know until you play.

bullzeye95

2009-08-13 03:14:11

Is it literally saying that the cat is both alive and dead at the same time? Because that is the explanation that I always get, which is just stupid.

Wizzup?

2009-08-13 03:20:16

Schrödinger cat is a thought experiment, often used to illustrate parts the Quantum Theory. (I did several experiments with/on Quantum Erasers; and parts of the Quantum Theory itself, and I used this example to partially illustrate the Theory to class mates.)

I found the wiki page on this pretty useful, so I won't re-type what's on the wiki:

One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter, there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small that perhaps in the course of the hour, one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges, and through a relay releases a hammer that shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.

It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a "blurred model" for representing reality. In itself, it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.[3]


( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat )

E: I also did a report on the "Double-slit experiment", you may want to read about it too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment

(Double-slit is damn epic, I've done it myself and took pictures too. :D )

E2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc

senrath

2009-08-13 03:32:19

Don't forget that the Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment was created to illustrate how ridiculous Quantum Mechanics can get, and not to prove that it's possible or anything like that.

ian.

2009-08-13 05:28:34

Quantum Physics and all this stuff is crazy and I read about it a lot. I think it's really interesting. :) Especially Double-slit. And Ejj, there really isn't a way to explain it so everyone agrees. It's not something that you can say 100% definitely. Whatever you think is right is what you think is right. :D

Infantry001

2009-08-13 05:42:43

What it's saying that both outcomes occur simultaneously in an enclosed environment. However, when forced to go through observation, it produces only one outcome.

Brain

2009-08-13 06:44:41

From: Infintry001
What it's saying that both outcomes occur simultaneously in an enclosed environment. However, when forced to go through observation, it produces only one outcome.


good explanation, that's kinda what I was thinking, but couldn't get words to it.

Freddy1990

2009-08-13 15:23:20

Shrodingers Cat was a heavily abused little critter, though kind of cool that it was undead, zombie cat while it was in the box =D

Dan Cardin

2009-08-14 00:44:44

Schrodinger's cat is a pretty good example of quantum mechanics with life sized objects. In quantum mechanics, any observable trait of a thing is a state. An example could be the spin of an electron. To measure the spin of electron, you can use a left/right spin measuring device that measures whether the spin is more left or more right. When the device actually measures the spin, the spin of the atom is changed to the outcome of the device. So if the device measures that it was spinning more left, then the spin becomes exactly left.

With the cat in the box, it is similar. The cat is kept in a box to disallow you from observing it. Since you cant observe it, the cat is in an arbitrary state that is a mixture of both the state of being alive and the state of being dead. So it is both dead and alive. If you were to observe the cat, then you would definitely know whether it was dead or alive and so, the state would be changed to exactly dead or exactly alive. Thus giving a real world example of quantum mechanics.

Hobbit

2009-08-14 04:42:08

Kindergarten Explanation



A poster on my wall :p


anonymity

2009-08-14 05:17:29

Seeing as Erwin Schroedinger brilliance'd the schroedinger cat theory in the late 1920's, logic would deduce that the cat would herein be dead… or would it?

Because of the cat experiment, many more theories erupted from the complex human mind.
-> bringing to example: if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it… does it make a sound?
Answer: no. what is sound, but a wave traveling through space. When a human 'hears' something, their receptors (ears) and processor (brain) are compiling the waves and communicating to other part(s) of the brain that a sound was heard and what that sound was… If those waves were never received then 'sound' would not had been made.

ps: to those of you who can't resist I will just save you the post…. we all know Chuck Norris heard the tree fall…

R0b0t1

2009-08-17 07:31:23

Sound is the vibration of waves through the air. So if the air vibrated, a sound was made, but no one heard it.

senrath

2009-08-17 07:31:57

From: R0b0t1
Sound is the vibration of waves through the air. So if the air vibrated, a sound was made, but no one heard it.


Air vibrations only become sound the moment they encounter an ear drum, be it human or animal.

Infantry001

2009-08-17 13:25:21

The answer to the question lies solely in your own definition of sound. Plain and simple - it's not a trick question.