The Weekly Scientific 2 - Schrodinger's Cat, Wave Function
Dec 29, 2021 14:43:01 GMT
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Post by John Marston on Dec 29, 2021 14:43:01 GMT
Welcome to the second edition of the Weekly Scientific 2. Yeah, I know it isn't "Weekly" now because I haven't been doing one every week. But now that my exams are done, expect a flurry of them in the upcoming month. Credits to Gerd von Rundstedt for the idea. Oh, and a happy new year to you guys 
PRECAUTION!!!!
In order to understand the concepts of Schrodinger's cat experiment, quantum wavefunction and quantum physics in general, it is advised to leave your common sense at the doorstep. The things which are going to come up don't really make sense and I advise you to behave as if you're a crazy and think out of the box
Schrodinger's cat experiment
Schrodinger's cat experiment, you guessed it 
has a cat. This experiment, proposed by one of the founding member of quantum physics is a simple one, but it's implications are very deep. Erwin Schrodinger himself and other physicists, felt that quantum physics posed too many fundamental and philosophical questions to our understanding of the Universe. They were concerned about the probabilistic nature of the Universe and not of a predictable ones, i.e. we cannot predict with full accuracy about the fundamentals of our Universe. So Schrodinger proposed this particular "Cat" experiment in order to disprove the results of quantum mechanics.
Guess what, it ended up being too complex and scientists thought that he was actually supporting the notion instead of opposing. It must be also noted that the quantum mechanical equations, though complex, gives the same result as that of Newtonian Physics for macroscopic objects, while integrating the wave and particle nature of microscopic particles.
Too much fuss aside, let's get to the thought experiment now. Imagine a cat, inside a box, cut off from the outer world. Let us assume a radioactive substance is placed inside the box. Now consider that there is an equal probability i.e. 50% probability that the the radioactive substance decays (Decay means that an unstable atomic nucleus spontaneously changes to a lower-energy state and spits out a bit of radiation. In the due course, it can even change to a different element). Also imagine a glass of poison inside the box.
Now, consider a machine which detects whether the radioactive substance undergoes radiation or not. It is connected to a hammer, such that IF, IF the substance undergoes radioactive decay, then the hammer strikes the poison, killing the cat and IF there is no decay, then the hammer doesn't strike the poison and the cat survives.
has a cat. This experiment, proposed by one of the founding member of quantum physics is a simple one, but it's implications are very deep. Erwin Schrodinger himself and other physicists, felt that quantum physics posed too many fundamental and philosophical questions to our understanding of the Universe. They were concerned about the probabilistic nature of the Universe and not of a predictable ones, i.e. we cannot predict with full accuracy about the fundamentals of our Universe. So Schrodinger proposed this particular "Cat" experiment in order to disprove the results of quantum mechanics.Guess what, it ended up being too complex and scientists thought that he was actually supporting the notion instead of opposing. It must be also noted that the quantum mechanical equations, though complex, gives the same result as that of Newtonian Physics for macroscopic objects, while integrating the wave and particle nature of microscopic particles.
Too much fuss aside, let's get to the thought experiment now. Imagine a cat, inside a box, cut off from the outer world. Let us assume a radioactive substance is placed inside the box. Now consider that there is an equal probability i.e. 50% probability that the the radioactive substance decays (Decay means that an unstable atomic nucleus spontaneously changes to a lower-energy state and spits out a bit of radiation. In the due course, it can even change to a different element). Also imagine a glass of poison inside the box.
Now, consider a machine which detects whether the radioactive substance undergoes radiation or not. It is connected to a hammer, such that IF, IF the substance undergoes radioactive decay, then the hammer strikes the poison, killing the cat and IF there is no decay, then the hammer doesn't strike the poison and the cat survives.
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Now comes the weird thing. Now we know that, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY TO KNOW WHETHER THE CAT IS ALIVE OR DEAD UNTIL YOU OPEN THE BOX. According to quantum mechanics, the cat is BOTH AND ALIVE AND DEAD AT THE SAME TIME AND WHEN WE OPEN THE BOX, THE CAT IS EITHER ALIVE OR DEAD. That means that the cat is both alive and dead when YOU ARE NOT LOOKING and EITHER OF THEM when YOU LOOK AT IT.
This is as if the "Cat" (For the lack of a better word) is FORCED TO CHOOSE ONE, EITHER DEAD OR ALIVE WHEN WE LOOK AT IT AND WHEN WE DON'T, THEN IT EXISTS BOTH AS AN ALIVE AND AS A DEAD CAT, just like the double slit experiment, where when you 'look' at the electron, it is forced to act either as a wave, or a particle when it enters one of the slit and not as both.
The implications of the Schrodinger's Cat equation is beyond the scope of this thread as I feel this is already long. Maybe another time.
Now comes the weird thing. Now we know that, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY TO KNOW WHETHER THE CAT IS ALIVE OR DEAD UNTIL YOU OPEN THE BOX. According to quantum mechanics, the cat is BOTH AND ALIVE AND DEAD AT THE SAME TIME AND WHEN WE OPEN THE BOX, THE CAT IS EITHER ALIVE OR DEAD. That means that the cat is both alive and dead when YOU ARE NOT LOOKING and EITHER OF THEM when YOU LOOK AT IT.
This is as if the "Cat" (For the lack of a better word) is FORCED TO CHOOSE ONE, EITHER DEAD OR ALIVE WHEN WE LOOK AT IT AND WHEN WE DON'T, THEN IT EXISTS BOTH AS AN ALIVE AND AS A DEAD CAT, just like the double slit experiment, where when you 'look' at the electron, it is forced to act either as a wave, or a particle when it enters one of the slit and not as both.
The implications of the Schrodinger's Cat equation is beyond the scope of this thread as I feel this is already long. Maybe another time.
