Shrodinger's Cat
As educated as our world will be, I always seem to get different results when asking about the concept of Shrodinger's Cat. Many of which I hear are, in retrospect, completely ridiculous, despite the fact that it has come from a person of an high educated level. My Physics teacher for example. I am ashamed to say that even he has disgraced his profession by answering such a question wrong. This has in no way caused my to disrespect him. However I will be having second thoughts and will no doubt be double-checking whenever I ask him about a scientific question as profound as this. Although I am merely a fifteen-year old boy, with limited knowledge about the field of Physics as a branch of science, I will be giving you an explanation of what the concept of Shrodinger's Cat really is about. Be aware that my knowledge is limited to the mind of a fifteen-year old boy who is in no way of higher intellect than his peers and that I may, on occasions in the duration of this post, may give false information without my knowledge, however slight it may be. It may be a little complicated for those who have not been able to comprehend Physics to a higher level or have a developed and mature sense of knowledge sufficient for this concept.
Imagine a cat put into a box. A killing agent or a object which causes the death of the cat is put into a box. In the original concept, made by Erwin Shrodinger in 1935, a corked poisonous gas is put into the box. However, Albert Einstein has depicted a brick of TNT instead. Whatever killing agent they may be they are both designed to kill the cat. Both agents designed for the cat's destruction have a fifty-fifty chance of the being triggered. Therefore the chance of the cat living or dying is 50-50 accordingly. The box is then closed and the killing agent is left to detonate or short circuit, of both there is a 50-50 chance of occurring.
In realistic terms the cat is either dead OR alive. However in Quantum physics, physicists have concluded that the cat is dead AND alive. It is put in a "Superposition" where it is put in a dilemma for nature; we are assuming that nature has not made a decision of whether to kill the cat or not. By opening the box and looking into the box, we are then forcing nature to make a choice of killing the cat or keeping it alive.
Here I present the justification; you see in physics at a quantum level, nothing is really definite. There is always a probability of something behaving differently, similar to how the result will range between the cat being dead or alive in the experiment listed above. Therefore if something is examined, the act of you observing it will change the way it behaves. Take light for example- if tested as a particle, it acts like a particle. However if tested as a wave, it will act like a wave as well. Therefore we say that light is BOTH a particle and a wave (This is the part where it becomes hazy as I cannot possibly justify that sentence as I do not know this as a fact)
Hopefully this has enriched your knowledge about the concept of Shrodinger's Cat. This concept does get easily misinterpreted and I do wish that you correctly your friends and family whenever this topic arises in family dinners and such. It has certainly boasted my view as an erudite and I do hope, if you are of someone of my age, it has boasted your reputation as well.
Cheers,
Matthew Tan
Imagine a cat put into a box. A killing agent or a object which causes the death of the cat is put into a box. In the original concept, made by Erwin Shrodinger in 1935, a corked poisonous gas is put into the box. However, Albert Einstein has depicted a brick of TNT instead. Whatever killing agent they may be they are both designed to kill the cat. Both agents designed for the cat's destruction have a fifty-fifty chance of the being triggered. Therefore the chance of the cat living or dying is 50-50 accordingly. The box is then closed and the killing agent is left to detonate or short circuit, of both there is a 50-50 chance of occurring.
Here I present the justification; you see in physics at a quantum level, nothing is really definite. There is always a probability of something behaving differently, similar to how the result will range between the cat being dead or alive in the experiment listed above. Therefore if something is examined, the act of you observing it will change the way it behaves. Take light for example- if tested as a particle, it acts like a particle. However if tested as a wave, it will act like a wave as well. Therefore we say that light is BOTH a particle and a wave (This is the part where it becomes hazy as I cannot possibly justify that sentence as I do not know this as a fact)
Hopefully this has enriched your knowledge about the concept of Shrodinger's Cat. This concept does get easily misinterpreted and I do wish that you correctly your friends and family whenever this topic arises in family dinners and such. It has certainly boasted my view as an erudite and I do hope, if you are of someone of my age, it has boasted your reputation as well.
Cheers,
Matthew Tan
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