Quantum Physics?

[DJG]

Aaaaahhhhh!!!

I can't seem to make much sense of this. I've managed to get my head around Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal but I can't work out Schrodinger's thing about putting a cat in a box. Isn't an atom's state "not alive" in the first place anyway?

Can anyone explain this cat thing?

[Stormymystic]

Originally posted by DJG: Aaaaahhhhh!!! I can't seem to make much sense of this. I've managed to get my head around Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal but I can't work out Schrodinger's thing about putting a cat in a box. Isn't an atom's state "not alive" in the first place anyway? Can anyone explain this cat thing?

akkk hiss hiss sputter...are you really trying to make me use my brain????

If you understand the uncertainty principle, then you should understand the cat. The uncertainty is not about the cat...it is about wether the radioactive isotope will decay at any particular time...At least thats how I remember it... I could be wrong due to the uncertainty principle

[Mojo]

I know next to nothing as regards the Uncertainty Principle, but I've always understood the cat thing went like this....

A cat, a small vial of poison gas and an isotope which has a 50/50 chance of decaying and releasing an atom are in a sealed box. If the isotope decays, the vial is broken, releasing the gas and killing the cat. If it doesn't, the cat lives. I think the point was that there is an even chance of either of these eventualities being true, an even chance of the cat being alive or dead but we don't know until it's observed. So, until it's observed, the cat itself is in an uncertain state of existence; both alive and dead.

I realise I may have missed the point completely....

[/)eathKiller]

Put your cat in the box...

What's inside of the box?

PAIN!!!!

err I mean...

Well they used a cat as the theory because the cat had a 1/2 chance of survival with the decaying radioactive isotope. In one dimension the cat lives in another the cat dies therefore the physical pathway of ourselves crossing into either dimension A or dimension B is ultimatley decided by the incomprehendable!

There see... that's not too hard now is it?

Another good theory: The quantum leap! It is followed by battlestar galactica and then mork and mindi every friday night!

[Mojo]

You put a cat in a box where it could be killed by the gas or the isotope, and it'll suffocate anyway....

I guess that's why it's only a theory....

Actually Schrodingers cat isn't a theory...it is a "Thought Experiment" [img]smile.gif[/img] Just had to pick me a nit [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Mojo]

I told you I know next to nothing about it....

But then, I have to ask, MagiK....what's the difference? Is it that a theory can be tested?

[daan]

Yup, it's about to be tested actually
I posted it somwhere in " the healthy god debate ".
Basically it says that atoms can have multiple values at the same time i.e. spinning right and spinning left at the same time. By measuring you assign a fixed value to it, but if you dont it has all available values at the same time.

It's all about being everything these days; we have energy=mass waves=particles, we have supersymmetrie and we have this [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Seems logical enough if you believe the superstring-theory since that would mean everything consists of the same stuff anywayz. Quantum mechanics is all about analog values, no more 1 or 2 or 3 but everything in between.

[disclaimer] I'm not allknowing on this subject, if you think I misexplained anything, I probably did [img]tongue.gif[/img] [/disclaimer]

[Timber Loftis]

Isn't there a subatomic particle (quark?) whose charge you do not know until you look at it??

And, yes, it was the god thread where you used Schrodinger's cat to answer my Taoist "bend and be straight" notion.