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In 1935, Erwin Schrodinger proposed a theoretical experiment that involved a cat, a steel box, and various objects that could either lead to its death, or could not.
A cat is put in a steel box with a Geiger counter (a particle detector that measures ionizing radiation), a vial of poison, a hammer, and a radioactive substance. When the radioactive substance decays, the Geiger detects it and triggers the hammer to release the poison, which would kill the cat. Radioactive decay, however, occurs randomly, and you cannot predict when it will occur. Therefore, the atom exists in a state of superposition - both decayed and not decayed at the same time.
The observer doesn't know whether or not the cat is alive or dead until the box is opened, because the cat's life depends on whether or not the atom has decayed, and therefore the cat is also "living and dead...in equal parts," as Schrodinger said, until the box is opened. So essentially, until the box is opened, the cat is both alive and dead because you cannot assume that one outcome occurred over another.
Once the observer looked at the cat, obviously, the cat would either be alive or dead, but cannot be both simultaneously.
Schrodinger developed this paradox to illustrate the nature of wave particles in quantum mechanics.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was discovered that very very small things didn't obey Newton's Laws, and so we couldn't use the rules that explain the motion of objects such as balls or cars to explain how an electron or atom works. A wave function describes all the possible states that particles can takes, like energy, momentum, and position. It is the combination of all the possible wave functions that exist. To put it in the context of an atom, if you put an electron around a nucleus, it can have any of the allowed states or positions, so before we observe the actual electron and atom, it is under the law of the wave function. It is all the possible positions, but we won't know which one until we observe the electron and nucleus.
Simply put, Schrodinger's cat experiment shows that without observation, we assume that it (the electron about a nucleus) is in all states rather than choosing a specific position and having a chance of being incorrect.
http://failureconfetti.smackjeeves.com/comics/1232716/schr-dingers-cat/
A cat is put in a steel box with a Geiger counter (a particle detector that measures ionizing radiation), a vial of poison, a hammer, and a radioactive substance. When the radioactive substance decays, the Geiger detects it and triggers the hammer to release the poison, which would kill the cat. Radioactive decay, however, occurs randomly, and you cannot predict when it will occur. Therefore, the atom exists in a state of superposition - both decayed and not decayed at the same time.
The observer doesn't know whether or not the cat is alive or dead until the box is opened, because the cat's life depends on whether or not the atom has decayed, and therefore the cat is also "living and dead...in equal parts," as Schrodinger said, until the box is opened. So essentially, until the box is opened, the cat is both alive and dead because you cannot assume that one outcome occurred over another.
Once the observer looked at the cat, obviously, the cat would either be alive or dead, but cannot be both simultaneously.
Schrodinger developed this paradox to illustrate the nature of wave particles in quantum mechanics.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was discovered that very very small things didn't obey Newton's Laws, and so we couldn't use the rules that explain the motion of objects such as balls or cars to explain how an electron or atom works. A wave function describes all the possible states that particles can takes, like energy, momentum, and position. It is the combination of all the possible wave functions that exist. To put it in the context of an atom, if you put an electron around a nucleus, it can have any of the allowed states or positions, so before we observe the actual electron and atom, it is under the law of the wave function. It is all the possible positions, but we won't know which one until we observe the electron and nucleus.
Simply put, Schrodinger's cat experiment shows that without observation, we assume that it (the electron about a nucleus) is in all states rather than choosing a specific position and having a chance of being incorrect.
http://failureconfetti.smackjeeves.com/comics/1232716/schr-dingers-cat/