[HPforGrownups] Re: Schrodinger's Cat

[Denise]

No: HPFGUIDX 1331

Thanks Brooks.  I now recall hearing something about that experiment, but not certain where.

It sounds, Lori, though that it is part and particle (LOL) to POU?  Winks.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Brooks R 
  To: HPforGrownups at egroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 5:37 PM
  Subject: [HPforGrownups] Re: Schrodinger's Cat



       
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  --- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Denise" <gypsycaine at y...> wrote:
  > Schrodinger's Cat 
  > 
  > Could you explain what this is?
  > 
  > Thanks!


  You need to hire a good Quantum mechanic for that.

  Seriously, Schrodinger proposed this thought experiment in an attempt 
  to explain how Quantum phenomena are statistical in nature and to 
  demonstrate one implication of uncertainty.

  The basic postulate is you have a box, in which is a single atom of a 
  radioactive isotope, with a half-life of exactly one hour.  This
  means 
  that there is a 50-50 chance that the particle will decay within that 
  one hour.  You surround the particle with a perfect detector such
  that 
  if it decays, that fact will be detected.  You then make the detector 
  trip a switch if the decay is detected, which will open a valve that 
  will release cyanide into the box.  

  You put a cat in the box.

  Assuming you cannot hear or feel the cat moving around, meowing, or
  in 
  any other way detect the state of the cat, and that you have no 
  external indicator as to whether the detector was activated or 
  not, you wait an hour and then open the box.  Did the particle decay 
  or did it not?  Did the cat die or did it not?  The answer is that it 
  is impossible to know until you open the box.  Is the cat alive or 
  dead?  It is both at the same time, because both are states of the 
  universe that co-exist *until an observation is made*.   This is 
  called "superimposed states".  When you make an observation, the 
  superimposed states collapse leaving only one result as the 
  "winner".  At the mathematical descriptions of elementary particles 
  level the universe really does seem to work that way.  The thought 
  experiment is an attempt to show an effect at a macroscopic level of
  a 
  quantum mechanics reality:  at the quantum level the universe
  operates 
  by blind statistics.

  (The experiment as described is technically impossible because at the 
  time it was invented, there was no way to put in a single radioactive 
  atom, although there is now; and there will probably never be a 
  perfect detector).

  -Brooks


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