babooshka
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Post by babooshka on Oct 1, 2004 17:37:40 GMT 10
The experiment I was told of is that they shoot into the box, with a gun.
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Post by holly on Oct 1, 2004 17:41:54 GMT 10
No no not even close.
Fyrrn had the mechanics spot on.
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babooshka
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Post by babooshka on Oct 1, 2004 17:42:44 GMT 10
Then we obviously have different experiments in mind.
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Post by dhm on Oct 1, 2004 17:44:51 GMT 10
I'm not a cat person either!
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Post by holly on Oct 1, 2004 17:45:26 GMT 10
I doubt it Schroedinger was famous for only one such theory.
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babooshka
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Post by babooshka on Oct 1, 2004 17:49:14 GMT 10
I'm not a cat person either! I'm not a science person either! I definitely heard about a theory in which a cat is placed in a box, someone shoots into the box and until the box is opened two parallel worlds are created: one in which the cat lives and the other in which it doesn't or some nonsense such as that.
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Post by holly on Oct 1, 2004 17:52:36 GMT 10
I'm not a science person either! I definitely heard about a theory in which a cat is placed in a box, someone shoots into the box and until the box is opened two parallel worlds are created: one in which the cat lives and the other in which it doesn't or some nonsense such as that. chinese whispers at work. Just goes to show you must do the research yourself.
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Post by holly on Oct 1, 2004 17:56:35 GMT 10
Schroedinger's Cat
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On June 7 of 1935, Erwin Schroedinger wrote to Albert Einstein to congratulate him on what is now known as the EPR paper, a famous problem in the interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Soon thereafter, he published what was to become one of the most celebrated paradoxes in quantum theory: Schroedinger's Cat
A cat is placed in a box, together with a radioactive atom. If the atom decays, and the geiger-counter detects an alpha particle, the hammer hits a flask of prussic acid (HCN), killing the cat. The paradox lies in the clever coupling of quantum and classical domains. Before the observer opens the box, the cat's fate is tied to the wave function of the atom, which is itself in a superposition of decayed and undecayed states. Thus, said Schroedinger, the cat must itself be in a superposition of dead and alive states before the observer opens the box, ``observes'' the cat, and ``collapses'' it's wave function.
Feline Wave Functions
Schroedinger's Cat and the Environment: Examples from Condensed Matter. Dissipative Atomic Tunneling Mossbauer effect X-Ray edge effect Kondo effect Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling and Coherence
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babooshka
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Post by babooshka on Oct 1, 2004 18:01:43 GMT 10
Well I had the basic gist.
But still, it's a load of crap. More high-tech crap than my theory, but crap nonetheless.
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Post by dhm on Oct 1, 2004 18:03:58 GMT 10
Oi babs watch what you call crap! It's a pretty seminal theory.
Oh and Holly's a science geek I mean girl.
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babooshka
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Post by babooshka on Oct 1, 2004 18:08:29 GMT 10
But it really is, because of the fact that the cat is a living thing. For the cat, it's either dead or it isn't, it does not take someone else to see whether it is or not for it to actually in fact be dead or not.
This is akin to saying that "Until I received the phonecall telling me my grandmother was dead, she in fact was still alive". Just because I am not aware of the death or not does not mean that it hasn't happened. I think the theory is one of self-centredness, not scientificity, as far as I'm concerned.
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Post by dhm on Oct 1, 2004 18:10:59 GMT 10
I see your point but that is not exactly what the experiment is about. It's critical that the cat is alive.
Anyway lets agree to disagree on its value! You have to get to work on that sign anyway!
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Post by holly on Oct 1, 2004 18:30:42 GMT 10
Babyooshka proves famous Physicist Edwin Schroedinger wrong without the use of Algebra on reality tv board down under.
I can see the headlines.
65 pages of algebra were sent to Einstein for affirmation by Schroedinger before he published this famous theory.
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Post by Test Card Girl on Oct 1, 2004 18:35:33 GMT 10
I think the theory has got to do with the significance of the point of view of the observer if you're talking about really teeny weeny particles as in quantum physics - but really I'm talking out of my bum here because I'm way out of my depth!
Thanks for explaining it better in your post after mine Holly.
I just love this board!
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Post by holly on Oct 1, 2004 18:45:58 GMT 10
The problem that perplexed Einstein, Schrödinger and generations of physicists after them has to do with reality. According to quantum theory, particles can come into existence only when they are "observed." Our everyday experiences teach us that this is nonsense.
Initially, Schrödinger's description of the wave function--a mathematical expression that summarizes a particle's possible positions and movements--contributed to the riddle's conception. Nine years later, he created his cat experiment in order to illustrate the dilemma of bridging the gap between quantum- and human-scale reality that he had helped to create. In his "thought experiment," also called an imaginary experiment, he envisioned a cat placed inside a closed box along with a hair-trigger execution device and a radioactive atom. The atom had a 50 percent chance of decaying within 1 hour. If the atom decayed, the subsequent energy release would trigger the device. After waiting exactly 1 hour, anyone opening the box could expect to find the cat dead or alive. Not so fast, said Schrödinger. According to the rules of quantum mechanics, the cat existed in a dead-and-alive state--known formally as a quantum superposition--until someone lifted the lid and made an observation. This contradiction of the way the world works at the human-scale level may seem foolish. But, as Schrödinger pointed out, the superposition was required by the mathematics that gave quantum theory its ability to perfectly predict the way the world works at the subatomic level.
And so, for more than a half-century, Schrödinger's dead-and-alive cat has been clawing at the ankles of physicists, demanding to know exactly how the quantum realm connects with the human-scale world.
Unquote extract only.
Actually it is all about reality as we perceive it.
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