So what's the deal with Schrodinger's cat?

[snoopy369]

If there is a tree in the forest that is teetering around but not actually falling, and you walk away to a distance where you can't hear it fall, and someone asks you, "Did that tree fall", what's the answer?
-
Joe

[ZEE]

.

[Lorizael]

Observation has nothing to do with humans seeing things with their own eyes. All observation means is that an object has an effect on another object that can be measured. As far as we know we're the only ones measuring things, but that's not important.

If an object does something to another object in a measurable way, then it's been observed and it collapses into something real.

Schrodinger's Cat is an imperfect thought experiment because it doesn't actually create a paradox. There are particles of air and the underside of the box which can "observe" the state of the cat.

The cat would need to be in a zero-gee vacuum (in a very large box) for the experiment to model an actual paradox, but then the odds of the cat turning out dead would be slightly greater than fifty percent.

[Krill]

Quantum mechanics is the bane of my life

I wish Newtonian physics applied to electrons

[Heraclitus]

Well, the example still has educational value.

[Wezil]

I would like to point out that Schrodinger's Cat is NOT ELIGIBLE for the Dead Pool.

Thank you. Carry on.

[Spec]

Do clones have the same finger prints? If so, could it serve as an aliby?

Who was where and when is always disputable then!! I want a clone! I have many people that need....closure.

Spec.

[Elok]

Originally posted by Lorizael
Observation has nothing to do with humans seeing things with their own eyes. All observation means is that an object has an effect on another object that can be measured. As far as we know we're the only ones measuring things, but that's not important.

If an object does something to another object in a measurable way, then it's been observed and it collapses into something real.

Schrodinger's Cat is an imperfect thought experiment because it doesn't actually create a paradox. There are particles of air and the underside of the box which can "observe" the state of the cat.

The cat would need to be in a zero-gee vacuum (in a very large box) for the experiment to model an actual paradox, but then the odds of the cat turning out dead would be slightly greater than fifty percent.

If that's the case, wouldn't it also need to be pitch-black across the EM spectrum in there to avoid the walls "observing" light emitted from the quasi-dead cat? And wouldn't you need some device to nullify the faint gravitational effect of the cat's mass on the box or something? I don't get it...but then, it is quantum mechanics.

[Lorizael]

I'd like to say yes to your suggestions, but I fear reprisals from KH if I continue to speak about things I don't actually know.

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by AAHZ
this sounds like the same "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it then it actually made no sound."

it is a bunch of crap IMHO! The damn cat is dead if he is dead, alive if it is not, it does not matter whether we PERCIEVE it to be in either state. It is the human arrogance that we control the universe that if we do not see or hear anything then they do not actually exist.

so much for life on other planets eh...?

let me stop before i rant. piece™

You're silly. If we can't experimentally determine the truth, then for all intents and purposes it’s both alive and dead. And if a being with perfect understanding of the true laws of physics couldn’t figure it out, the cat would truly be both dead and alive. It’s not about what we perceive; it’s about the cat’s interaction with the universe. The physical world determines reality.

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Elok


If that's the case, wouldn't it also need to be pitch-black across the EM spectrum in there to avoid the walls "observing" light emitted from the quasi-dead cat? And wouldn't you need some device to nullify the faint gravitational effect of the cat's mass on the box or something? I don't get it...but then, it is quantum mechanics.

The cat's mass would remain practicaly the same if it died.

[Krill]

The volume would change if it were in a vacuum though

I want a cat

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Lorizael
I'd like to say yes to your suggestions, but I fear reprisals from KH if I continue to speak about things I don't actually know.

I thought that KH had left poly. Is he still here?

[Lorizael]

Oh, he'll be back.

[Dinner]

KH got into a fight with the mods. He still posts at Eventis and occasionally at CG. He said his research on his Doctoral Thesis has kept him extremely busy.