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

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Oerdin
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.

WTF is Eventis?

[Dinner]

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!

Not exactly. Mathematically every quantum equation has to different but equally correct answers and we cannot determine which is the correct answer for that particular instance without observing it but the very act of observing it influences it. Look up quantum indeterminability.

Essentially at very small scales Newtonian physics breaks down and there is a whole bizarre new world of physics. Newtonian physics mainly deals with gravity and mass but when mass gets extremely small then it has almost no gravity (or rather a very, very, very small gravitational effect) and so things are dictated by electro-magnetic forces and other forces. Thus we use quantum mechanics to try to figure out why things happen the way they do. How do you describe particles which are moving so fast in their shell/orbit that they are essentially at all points of its shell at once?

[Zkribbler]

(A) The cat cannot effect the universe from inside the box.
(B) The cat, if alive, is doomed to death from dehydration, starvation and/or sufficiation.

Thus, the question of whether the cat is alive is irrelevant.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Mathematically every quantum equation has to different but equally correct answers

Not just two.

[Dinner]

Ok, at least two.

I do think most of the theoretical dimensions it takes to make quantum mechanics work are bollucks though. I'm no way an expert but it just seems wrong to have to resort to such unverifiable math theory.

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Dauphin


Not just two.

Correct.

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
(A) The cat cannot effect the universe from inside the box.
(B) The cat, if alive, is doomed to death from dehydration, starvation and/or sufficiation.

Thus, the question of whether the cat is alive is irrelevant.

Well, it teaches us something about reality.

[Krill]

[q=Oerdin]Essentially at very small scales Newtonian physics breaks down and there is a whole bizarre new world of physics. Newtonian physics mainly deals with gravity and mass but when mass gets extremely small then it has almost no gravity (or rather a very, very, very small gravitational effect) and so things are dictated by electro-magnetic forces and other forces. Thus we use quantum mechanics to try to figure out why things happen the way they do. How do you describe particles which are moving so fast in their shell/orbit that they are essentially at all points of its shell at once?[/q]

Bull****.

[Dinner]

That electro magnetic forces are more important at small scales? Or you think Newtonian physics doesn't break down at small scales?

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Krill
[q=Oerdin]Essentially at very small scales Newtonian physics breaks down and there is a whole bizarre new world of physics. Newtonian physics mainly deals with gravity and mass but when mass gets extremely small then it has almost no gravity (or rather a very, very, very small gravitational effect) and so things are dictated by electro-magnetic forces and other forces. Thus we use quantum mechanics to try to figure out why things happen the way they do. How do you describe particles which are moving so fast in their shell/orbit that they are essentially at all points of its shell at once?[/q]

Bull****.

Why's this bull**** in you're opinion?
I mean Newtonian physics breaks down in other situations too. Or don you think relativity’s bull**** too?

And Oerdins post was perfectly understandable.

[Krill]

How many solutions are there to the wavefunctions of a many electron atom?

[Krill]

Quantium mechanics isn't perfect, it doesn't work for everything. (ie there is no solution for a many electron atom, you have to use the orbitals that hydrogen has). Other than that no qualms with the paragraph (though you can use newtonian physics to work out a ouple of things on a molecular level...)

[ZEE]

.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Krill
Quantium mechanics isn't perfect, it doesn't work for everything. (ie there is no solution for a many electron atom, you have to use the orbitals that hydrogen has). Other than that no qualms with the paragraph (though you can use newtonian physics to work out a ouple of things on a molecular level...)

There is a similar problem for n-body systems (where n is 3 or more) in Newtonian mechanics.

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
ZOMFG FADED GLORY IS SCHRÖDINGERS CAT!!!!1!

post of the week