Schrodinger's cat

Schrodinger's cat is a famous theoretical thought experiment in quantum physics

If even remotely interested......

There's something called The Copenhagen Interpretation that posits that "things" at the subatomic level don't have any determined properties, only possibilities. A particle can be in two places at the same time, the atom can be in both an excited and unexcited state at the same time, and a photon can be both a particle and a wave.

What determines what we see is our measurement and observation,

Then all the probabilities collapse into one, the one being observed.

Schrodinger wasn't a fan of that theory, so he devised a thought experiment to show how absurd it would be to apply to the gross world of stuff.

He said imagine we put a cat in a box. Also in the box is a radioactive particle which might, or might not begin to decay and emit radiation. If it does, there's a gieger counter which will trigger the release of a noxious gas that will kill the cat.

Then we put a lid on the box.

But until someone opens the box, the cat is both alive and dead.

 

That's hugely oversimplified, but it's the layman's gist.

 

This little cat was sitting under a curb on a recessed sewer grate.

So,, is it coming or going or both?

I'm happy to say it was alive. ;-))

 

Done