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SVTPerformance's Chain of Restaurants
Road Side Pub
Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Ohm are in a car...
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<blockquote data-quote="TJSwoboda" data-source="post: 15326644" data-attributes="member: 6882"><p>Not at all, no. You have a radioactive particle that, at a certain time, has a 50/50 chance of undergoing decay. You set up a sensor to read decay if it takes place, and connect the sensor to a motor that will swing a hammer to break a vial of highly lethal poison if the particle decays. You put this apparatus in a soundproof box with a cat, a few minutes before the critical second when the particle might decay. That second passes, and the particle may or may not have decayed. Heisenberg said that the particle is now in a superposition of states, both decayed and not-decayed, until we check its state and collapse the quantum wave into one objective reality or the other. Schrodinger disagreed, and to show what he thought was the absurdity of the idea came up with the cat thought-experiment I just described: Is the cat both alive and dead, until we open the box or check the particle? The person who opens the box doesn't die, well unless they touch the poison. Cops often wear gloves, so this one was safe. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Even though Heisenberg was right in his general interpretation of quantum mechanics (note the part of the joke about knowing speed or location, but never both), the cat isn't both alive and dead, and the particle isn't even in a superposition of states: Whether it undergoes decay affects things around it enough that no human observation is needed to collapse the quantum wave.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TJSwoboda, post: 15326644, member: 6882"] Not at all, no. You have a radioactive particle that, at a certain time, has a 50/50 chance of undergoing decay. You set up a sensor to read decay if it takes place, and connect the sensor to a motor that will swing a hammer to break a vial of highly lethal poison if the particle decays. You put this apparatus in a soundproof box with a cat, a few minutes before the critical second when the particle might decay. That second passes, and the particle may or may not have decayed. Heisenberg said that the particle is now in a superposition of states, both decayed and not-decayed, until we check its state and collapse the quantum wave into one objective reality or the other. Schrodinger disagreed, and to show what he thought was the absurdity of the idea came up with the cat thought-experiment I just described: Is the cat both alive and dead, until we open the box or check the particle? The person who opens the box doesn't die, well unless they touch the poison. Cops often wear gloves, so this one was safe. :) Even though Heisenberg was right in his general interpretation of quantum mechanics (note the part of the joke about knowing speed or location, but never both), the cat isn't both alive and dead, and the particle isn't even in a superposition of states: Whether it undergoes decay affects things around it enough that no human observation is needed to collapse the quantum wave. [/QUOTE]
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SVTPerformance's Chain of Restaurants
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Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Ohm are in a car...
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