Word Wall:
Copenhagen Interpretation: Founded by
Niels Bohr that explains how during that a particle only becomes a definitive state if we observe it, otherwise it is in all states! Basically it tries to explain how we could
observe different states each time we look at a quantic particle.
Schrödinger's cat:
This is an experiment that fits into the quantum physics category. Its
goal is to explain the theory of superposition. The best way to describe the
theory is through the Schrödinger experiment. A fun fact is that Erwin Schrödinger later won a Nobel Prize for his genius (so, yeah this is going to involve some strange, out of the box physics)! The basic idea or method is to
place a cat in a box (so that we cannot see what is happening to the cat), add
in some poison that is radioactive having a 50/50 chance at being detected and
killing the cat or not being detected allowing the cat to live another day. The way this experiment
has been done varies. Einstein replicated it using dynamite. However, the
principle take home message is identical since we cannot see the cat, know if
the thing decayed or exploded during a time interval, and we have no idea whether
the cat is alive or not, therefore it is technically both living and dead
(this is known as a superposition state). Until we can make the conclusion as
to whether or not the cat is living, this superposition idea stands.
Now, originally this whole to kill or not to kill
experiment was a simple visual idea of illustrating the wave function of
particles (which like the cat explains how particles can be ‘superpositioned’).
In the last post talking about Wave Particle duality we learned that if we look
at the Double Slit Experiment on occasion the particle seems to be at both the
slits at the same time – this is the superposition theory.
However, it is ridiculous to think of a cat being in a state of
superposition and even Schrödinger believed this, therefore it is necessary that
organisms and electrons are looked at in different ways. For example, the cat
would be able to observe whether it was dying or living; this goes back to
the Copenhagen Interpretation of superposition (this theory has never been fully accepted as truth by scientists).
The Copenhagen Interpretation was difficult for Schrödinger to wrap his mind
around completely since the cat (unlike an electron particle) is obviously either
dead or alive and NOT both.
Let’s go back to the cat in the box for a minute. We know
that there is a radioactive substance that has a chance at decaying, but if we
say that it has a chance at decaying in, for instance 30 minutes, it could technically
be decayed in 5 minutes or 8 minutes and quantum mechanics can tell us the
probability but not what we are going to observe – essentially there is never a
definite answer since the particle could either decay or not – we don’t know
without an observation, all we have to go off of is a prediction. This means
the question still stands and we are left without a definitive answer since
everything is left as hypothesis and not tested experimentally (if we do
not open the box up and watch the cat) we cannot know what is happening for certain - if we never open the box theoretically (if the cat didn't need food) there would be the tiniest possibility that the cat never dies, it lives life eternally!
If you still find this confusing watch this video and see if it helps: no cats were harmed in this clip!
Websites Consulted:
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Schrodingers-cat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOYyCHGWJq4
