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“I love reading about quantum physics. I love the “spooky” physics.

I just don’t understand it that well.

2 states at once.”

Yes, I sympathize...

The way I’ve come to understand it, is that the “wave function” is nothing more than what in probability is called a “random variable”. Random variables don’t have single values, rather they have a distribution of values (distribution curve). So that a random variable can take on many different values depending on when or what you sample.

For example, take the random variable “height of people”. There is no single value for that variable - people come in all sort of different heights. It is best described by a distribution curve (similar to a bell curve).
It takes on a distinct value only when you measure the height of a specific person. Similarly the wave function of a particle takes on a specific value - a state - when it is measured.

Another example might be “wind speed” on a gusty day. There is no single value that describes the wind - sometimes it’s calm sometimes it’s strong, so the variable “wind speed” has a range of values. It takes on a specific value when you actually measure it.

So just like Schrödinger’s cat can be either dead or alive, the same wind can be strong or calm.

At least that’s my two cents worth of understanding. I welcome anyone with four cents worth of understanding to correct me if I’m wrong. :)

(BTW the reason sometimes this stuff is hard to grasp is because “the experts” use esoteric terms - like “wave function” instead of the more common and understandable “distribution curve”. Physics is not the only field that obfuscates understanding for the layman, Every specialized field does that. In economics you have “quantitative easing’ which is just an obfuscation of “printing money”. In politics you have “affirmative action” which is an obfuscation of “reverse discrimination” or “racial quota system”. There are many such examples.)

One more additional point...

When they talk about the cat being dead or alive, they are not talking about a specific cat having two simultaneous states - dead and alive. Rather what they’re saying is that in a population (distribution) of cats, a particular cat can be dead or alive (it can also be sick or well, black or white or orange and so on). Until you open your eyes (sample it) and actually see it you don’t know what state (or color) that particular cat is.

Once you’ve seen it (sampled it) that particular cat can no longer be dead or alive or black or white at that instant in time. Later on, on seeing the same cat it may be somewhat different than when you saw it the first time, because it just got run over by a car. Like the human called Bruce Jenner was a good looking man 20 years ago and when you see him today he looks like a delusional ugly woman.

> ... the reason sometimes this stuff is hard to grasp is because “the experts” use esoteric terms - like “wave function” instead of the more common and understandable “distribution curve”. Physics is not the only field that obfuscates understanding for the layman, Every specialized field does that. In economics you have “quantitative easing’ which is just an obfuscation of “printing money”. In politics you have “affirmative action” which is an obfuscation of “reverse discrimination” or “racial quota system”. There are many such examples.)

I respectfully beg to differ slightly with your comment, at least with regard to physics. (I agree on the others you list later.) Granted, my physics degree is only a BS, and it's from 1974. Much has changed, and I've forgotten most of what I learned back then anyway because I went into electronics and computers, not physics, as a career. But I do think that it's fair to say that the wave function does indeed have the right name.

I'll let Wikipedia supply the explanation:

The Schrödinger equation determines how wave functions evolve over time, and a wave function behaves qualitatively like other waves, such as water waves or waves on a string, because the Schrödinger equation is mathematically a type of wave equation. This explains the name "wave function", and gives rise to wave–particle duality. However, the wave function in quantum mechanics describes a kind of physical phenomenon, still open to different interpretations, which fundamentally differs from that of classic mechanical waves.

So it is a wave, just not the simple "classical mechanics" sort. Are you incorrect to say that it is also a "distribution curve"? No, you are correct at least in part, because it is a probability distribution. But I would add that that attribute does not take away from its "wave" characteristics.