Quantum Weirdness

image credit: slac.stanford.edu

    Recently I heard someone talk about a thought experiment called "Schrödinger's Cat" when they did they got it wrong.  That is why I am about to inflict some quantum mechanics knowledge on all of you...Wow your eyes glazed over fast...No, wait don't go this'll be interesting I promise.  So before I delve into imaginary animal cruelty I want to give a short primer on what exactly is going on.

    In the early 1900's scientists preformed this experiment that found that all matter is both particle and wave at the same time, called the double slit experiment.  Big deal, the ocean has waves and particles!  Yea...sorta...see, what this is saying is that when observed matter collapses into a particle, and energy becomes a wave.  This is important because before this we all thought matter was matter, and energy was energy.  Oh, ho-ho not so fast scientists, said the universe, everything is both...until you look at it.  Trippy?  Yeah.  The subject of this post?  No.  Bored?  Keep reading, you'll be able to impress your friends by knowing this.

    Onto the man known as Schrödinger.  Erwin Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist that was born in 1887.  Given the time frame it's no surprise that he was somewhat of a classical physicist.  Because of that he found the idea of wave-particle duality to be something weird that only the kids could be into.  So standing on his porch, waving his cane, he mocked the kids that wouldn't get off his lawn.  "Oh, yeah everything's both particle and wave alright.  I'm also the queen of England can't you tell."  Okay he didn't say that, but it was similarly sarcastic.  What he came up with was the thought experiment now known as "Schrödinger's Cat"  which goes a little like this: Imagine a cat, now imagine a box that completely obscures the cat from any form of observation.  In the box with the is a poison that will rupture and kill the cat at a random time.  Kind of like a kid napping.  So at any time the cat could be dead.  Now what?  Well in his then jovial tone ol' Ernie said that until we open the box the cat is both dead and alive.  Ha-ha-ha went the physicists with their strange, and metaphorically abusive sense of humor.  Well...not exactly...most of the world thought he was serious.

    The early quantum theorists looked at this example, and said "Hey this Schrödinger guy came up with a great example. Let's start using it to teach the concept."  And thus "Schrödinger's Cat" was born...and killed...sorta.   The most important point to the experiment of course is that things are both particle and wave at the same time.  Which opened up the floor for Einstein to discover general relativity (E=mc^2), but that's for another time.

    Wow you made it through.  Not as painful as you thought now is it?  Oh you've been chewing migraine strength Advil the whole time?  Well I did too the first time I read about it.  Your welcome for your first "Quantum Headache" ha-ha-I'll shut up now...