can somebody define "Schrödinger's cat"?

Question

Can somebody define schrodinger's cat in a simple manner? I looked it up on Wikipedia and I didn't get a word (yeah....not that bright). Thanks!

Answer 1

Sure.

Basically, the experiment was a thought experiment only (remember that, no cats were harmed in the making of this thing). So the idea is that you put a cat in a box, with a radioactive-decay-based timer, that will fire a poison pellet into the box. This poison is invariably fatal.

The thing is that the timer is random. It might fire in the first second of the box being closed, it might fire three years later.

The second key is that there's no way to examine the cat without opening the box.

So, the thinking goes like this:
After the half-life of the radioactive timing device has been exceeded, meaning that the probability is 50% that the thing has decayed, the cat could be alive, or it could be dead, with equal probabilities.

But you can't observe, remember?

So, really, the cat is both alive AND dead. There are now two cats. One is alive, one is dead.

The "wave function collapses," that is, the cat becomes either alive or dead, when you observe it. Until that point, it's two cats in the same place, or one cat in two different states. At the same time.

Answer 2

Basically it's just a thought experiment. Poor cat.
:o)
This should help...

Said Schroedinger," isn't this fun
Shot a cat in a box with a gun
I'll be sure it survives
'Cause the cat has nine lives
And I'll only be using just one."

Schroedinger should not have done that
It was cruel "playing God" with a cat
Which, by the way, mister
Belonged to your sister
The next time please make it a rat.

Said Schroedinger poison is nifty
To dispose of this cat, God is shifty
We can't tell if it died
Till we all peer inside
And the odds are at just that, 50/50.

The cat in the box still has growth
Or it's dead, and infested with sloth
One should not get unnerved
Till the cat is observed
It's a superposition of both.

So that is the way that you tell it
Leave a cat in a box with a pellet
Should the trigger let go
The poison will flow
And you'll know the cat's dead when you smell it.

Said Schroedinger, "let Physics advance
Though it might be kitty's last dance
When we open the box
Be prepared for some shocks
But there's only a 50% chance."

Said Schroedinger, "let's take a chance
Though it might be kitty's last dance."
"The poor cat," he then joked
"is alive, or it's croaked"
But you can't know these things in advance.
- Karen Reid

Answer 3

Its purely a thought exercise, never meant to be actually performed. All it does is demonstrate that the rules (laws) of physics (i.e. Quantum Physics) don't have to make sense in the world as we know it to be true.

We all 'know' that there is no way for a cat to be alive and dead at the same time. The experiment demonstrates the deplorable fact that our knowledge of the quantum world comes to us in the form of momentary glimpses. And within each one of those glimpses, we only get enough information to say "This PROBABLY happened" When you try to attach black-and white 'real world' events to the occurence or non-occurence of a quantum event, you end up with non-sensical situations like a simultaneously alive and dead cat in a box. Until you open the lid and actually look in the box, for all (Quantum) intents and purposes the cat is equally both of its possible outcomes, either/both alive and/or dead.

Answer 4

Also well illustrated in a book: "Schrödinger's Cat" by Robert Anton Wilson. A good read by the way...