Schrödinger’s cat Quantum Physics Ping!.................
The people that discovered this are very smart.
Just think how smart the guy that invented this is?
If, instead of a cat, the professor put in one of his grad students, would the grad student be in a quantum state? And if it was another grad student who had the job of opening the box, and the poison in the box would have killed him too, would HE be in an indeterminate state until the professor opened the door to the lab?
Whilst I, of course, respect the nerds involved in this discussion and the seriousness of their intent, I find the comments in the article hysterically funny.
Sheldon: In case you have forgotten, Schrodinger’s cat is a thought experiment.
Penny: No, no, no, no, I didn’t forget. Um, there’s this cat in a box and until you open it, it’s either dead or alive or both. Although, back in Nebraska, our cat got stuck in my brother’s camp trunk, and we did not need to open it to know there was all kinds of dead cat in there.
Schroedinger’s cat (an epic poem)
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/113/the-story-of-schroedingers-cat-an-epic-poem
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So, if you put a radioactive substance in a box and a poison that will be released if (if?) an atom of the radioactive substance decays, which it is already doing because it is radioactive then the entire concept of "Schrödinger's famous cat" is ridiculous.
The cat is still a cat, dead or alive, it is still a cat.
Box open, cat.
Box closed, cat.
The poison is still a poison.
Box open, poison.
Box closed, poison.
Radioactive substance is decaying, that is what makes it "radioactive."
Box open, decaying.
Box closed, decaying.
The fact that a box has a door that can be opened does not change the fact that it is a box.
Box open, still a box.
Box closed, still a box.
Time does not stop inside a box just because the "door" is closed as opposed to opened.
If that were true we would not need refrigerators, just boxes.
This same is true with the cat.
The scenario is that cat is subject to the effects of the poison in the box which creates the state of continuance of time inside the box.
The continuance of time inside the box continues the state of decaying of the radioactive material inside the box.
The continuance of time inside the box continues the ability of the trigger to change from unactivated to activated, due to the continued decay process of the radioactive material.
And for over eighty years this idiocy has continued?
.