Shroedinger's Cat?

Question

I've heard a lot about an experiment called "Shroedinger's Cat" while I've been reading up on theoretical physics, but I have no idea what the experiment is. Could anyone shed some light?

Answer 1

It wasn't a real experiment, it was a thought experiment devised by Erwin Schrödinger after debates with Einstein.

The idea is this:
A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with a Geiger counter and a very tiny bit of radioactive substance. If an atom in the material decays, another device kills the cat.

Until you actually look, the cat is both alive and dead since both are equally possible. Its only when you actually look inside that both possibilities collapse and only one possibility remains.

Its one of the paradoxes of quantum physics - that there is no pure reality, only probabilities.

Answer 2

t: We place a living cat into a steel chamber, along with a device containing a vial of hydrocyanic acid. There is, in the chamber, a very small amount of a radioactive substance. If even a single atom of the substance decays during the test period, a relay mechanism will trip a hammer, which will, in turn, break the vial and kill the cat. The observer cannot know whether or not an atom of the substance has decayed, and consequently, cannot know whether the vial has been broken, the hydrocyanic acid released, and the cat killed. Since we cannot know, the cat is both dead and alive according to quantum law, in a superposition of states. It is only when we break open the box and learn the condition of the cat that the superposition is lost, and the cat becomes one or the other (dead or alive).

Answer 3

There is no really simple way to explain it. It relates to quantum mechanics in physics and the nature of reality, basically commenting on something being in two different states at the same time. Schroedinger's cat is both alive and dead and of course that is seemingly impossible and thus the 'paradox'. For these kinds of situations, I like to say "is it a particle or is it a wave?" (when talking about light) and of course the answer is both, even though intuitively it can't be both.

Answer 4

It's theoretical, not an actual experiment.

If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears, does it make a noise?
Either is does or it doesn't, but we can't prove either way because to do so we would have to listen in some form, thus invalidating the test.

The cat's the same. If we don't check the box, is it actually dead? It either is or isn't, but we can't prove it because to do so we would have to check.

Answer 5

Until you know the state of an object, it can be multiple states.

A cat in a box.
50% chance that a toxic gas will be released in the box, killing the cat (we will have no way of knowng the outcome until after the box is opened)
Until we open the box and know the state of the cat, the cat is both alive and dead.

Answer 6

it was a thought experiment where no one could really understand. It related to the probability of whether a cat in a box is dead or alive.
Of course the only determination that could be made is that if he does meow he is alive other wise he is dead.
It was not a clear thought experiment. till this day we still are baffeled by it.

Answer 7

Wikipedia is your friend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat
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