{"id":49,"date":"2016-04-16T02:30:08","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T07:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/random-musings.org\/?p=49"},"modified":"2023-07-25T21:09:56","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T02:09:56","slug":"the-revenge-of-schrodingers-cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/random-musings.org\/index.php\/2016\/04\/16\/the-revenge-of-schrodingers-cat\/","title":{"rendered":"The Revenge of Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s Cat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Quantum theory has produced an assortment of results that fly in the face of common sense. Particles that can be waves, particles that can be in two places at once \u2013 or nowhere at all \u2013 our being unable to know where something is and also where it\u2019s going\u2026 even quantum theorists don\u2019t understand these ideas except mathematically \u2013 if even then.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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Erwin Schr\u00f6dinger<\/span><\/a>
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In order to demonstrate one of the seeming paradoxes of quantum theory, Erwin Schr\u00f6dinger proposed a thought experiment. He imagined a box in which there was a cat, a bottle of poison, and a bit of radioactive material. A device was set up to detect whether the material emitted any radiation. If it did, the bottle of poison would be opened, and the cat would die. If not, then the cat was spared. The box was closed off and there was no way to know what happened inside until it was opened.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s conclusion was that since there was no way to know what happened inside the box before it was opened, the cat was in two states \u2013 both alive and dead. This experiment is often referred to as Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s Cat.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His thought experiment was an exaggeration of a simpler situation \u2013 where a single subatomic particle could have one of two (or more) possible states. Some physicists considered that until the particle\u2019s state was examined, it had no state \u2013 or rather, was in all possible states at once.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have several problems with this. First, just because you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on, doesn\u2019t mean the Universe is undecided. It\u2019s a measure of your ignorance, not of how the Universe works. It\u2019s all very philosophical and everything, but it\u2019s all bullshit. Does the world behind me really cease to exist simply because I don\u2019t see it?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, WTF? Why is it always cats that get put into these situations? Why not Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s Puppy, or Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s Baby Seal? No, it\u2019s always got to be a cat.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, guys like Schr\u00f6dinger piddled around with their math, made up stuff about quanta and quantum entanglement and whatever else, and actually managed to make some serious progress in technology.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of their more exciting discoveries \u2013 at least if you\u2019re into death rays \u2013 was the laser. That never would have been discovered without solid quantum theory. It\u2019s just too weird for classical physics. But we\u2019ve managed to produce bursts of concentrated, coherent, monochromatic light that doesn\u2019t spread as it travels. A flashlight will spread out so that at a moderate distance it becomes very dim. A laser holds together so you can see the spot a long way off.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what use have we made of this scientific wonder? Mostly we amuse our cats with laser pointers. Throughout the world at this very moment, millions of cats are eagerly chasing red dots, probably wondering why their humans are laughing at them.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Screw you, Schr\u00f6dinger.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quantum theory has produced an assortment of results that fly in the face of common sense. Particles that can be waves, particles that can be in two places at once \u2013 or nowhere at all \u2013 our being unable to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/random-musings.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/random-musings.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/random-musings.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/random-musings.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/random-musings.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/random-musings.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"https:\/\/random-musings.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/random-musings.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/random-musings.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/random-musings.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}