Schrödinger's cat?

Question

Is he dead or isn't he?

(didn't know where to stick this...putting it in physics)

Answer 1

The reason that this is an important question is because in no way can you ever know. There is no equation possible to predict it. That's why it's an important idea. Theoretically, you could predict a coin flipping. Take all of the factors: speed leaving the hand, distance, gravity, torque, distance fallen, then process it, you'll know how it'll land. It is NOT possible to ever predict whether the cat is alive. It's not that we can't do calculations that advanced, it's that it is not possible to calculate.
So, for all intents and purposes it is pure probability. That's why it's the uncertainty principle. If you think about it, especially when it came out, it was pretty mind-blowing that something could Not be predicted by any amount of instrumentation. It can only be observed.

Answer 2

you were right to put this in physics. (chemistry people say they understand the parodox, but they really do not)

The answer is he is dead and alive.

The thought experiment states that the radioactive material has a half life of x seconds. If half or more the material decays in x seconds, then the poison will be relised and the cat will die. IF less than half of the material decays then the poison will not be relised and the cat is fine.

So the whole thing about the story is that each particle in the matial has a certin probability to decay every second.

So each atom is in a super possition of states of either being decayed or not each with 50:50 certanty.

But just like fliping a coin 100 times you do not get 50 heads and 50 tails.

BUT before you look to see if the sample is decayed the truth is that each atom is in a state that is half decayed half not decayed.

Thus the cat is in a state of being half dead half alive.

Answer 3

Assume you have an opaque box with a cat, a hammer, a vial of prussic acid (HCN a deadly poison), a radioactive material and a Geiger counter (which detects emitted particles such as alpha or beta rays from radioactive sources)

Now, radioactivity being a purely random process, an atom can decay at any time thus generating a signal which causes the hammer to break the vial releasing HCN and killing the cat.

Thus the cat is either dead or alive or according to Quantum Theory, between dead and alive.

Answer 4

I never liked that idea. Just because we don't know it is dead does not mean that it isn't really dead, and just because we don't know it is alive doesn't mean it isn't really alive. It makes the claim that nothing has reality until we observe it. I just reject that idea. It is very much like the tree falling in the woods and nobody there to hear it, does it make a sound? YES, it does. Sound does not require a person to hear it to be a real sound. The cat does not need to be examined by a person to really be dead or alive.

Answer 5

To those saying 50% alive/dead:

The probability distribution changes over time, depending on the half-life of the radioactive particle. So when the particle's half-life has expired, the cat is 50% alive. However, at double the half-life the cat is only 25% alive, and so on until the cat is asymptotically dead.

Answer 6

Until you collapse the wave equation (by looking in the box), the cat is both alive and dead at the same time.
Both states exist simultaneously until an observer forces/collapses it into just a single state.

Answer 7

All the above answers explain it well. For an entertaining (fictional) example of this theory applied, read the book by Frederick Pohl, titled "The Coming of the Quantam Cats"

I'm not a Pohl fan in any other circumstance, but that was a darn good book.

Answer 8

Both alive and dead. Much as a train of single electrons will form an interference pattern in a double slit experiment. (Each electron passes through both slits)

We can only describe probabilities until we observe...

Answer 9

The cat is in a state of half-dead half-alive. We won't know unless we look. And if we look we may have changed the outcome.

Answer 10

The cat left cause he got hungry. He ran out of food and no one would give him anymore.

And physics is the appropriate category for this since it deals with quantum physics.