Schrödinger's Cat Thought Experiment

A Schrödinger's Cat Thought Experiment is a paradoxical thought experiment where a cat (in two boxes?) may be both alive and dead based on an earlier quantum indeterminant event and so quantum superposition should be observable in macroscopic events.

• Context:
  • It can be stated as: imagine a sealed box that contains a cat, a flask of poison, a source of radiation, and a radiation monitor. The items are arranged such that the flask will shatter if the monitor detects radioactivity. The flask is shattered, releasing the poison and killing the cat. But, radioactive decay is a quantum process and so in a superposition of states until observed. The radioactive atom is both decayed and undecayed at the same time. But that means the cat must also be in a superposition of alive and dead states until the box is open and the system is observed. Why don’t we observe these kinds of strange superpositions in the macroscopic world?
  • It can (typically) be attributed to Erwin Schrödinger.
• See: Schrödinger's Life Paradox, Quantum Indeterminacy, Quantum Superposition, Quantum Entanglement, Subatomic Particle.

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References

2016

• (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrödinger's_cat Retrieved:2016-6-1.
  • Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. The scenario presents a cat that may be simultaneously both alive and dead, a state known as a quantum superposition, as a result of being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur. The thought experiment is also often featured in theoretical discussions of the interpretations of quantum mechanics. Schrödinger coined the term Verschränkung (entanglement) in the course of developing the thought experiment.

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