Question

Schrodinger's cat

Could someone please explain to me the idea that Schrodinger was trying to illustrate by the cat in his box? I understand that he was trying to introduce the notion of the cat being both alive and dead at the same time. But why was it necessary to introduce this thought experiment and what did it achieve?

Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

one of the difficulties in nailing down the exact properties of an electron was that different experiments would lead to different conclusions, depending on how each experiment was set up. If someone set up an experiment trying to prove the electron was a particle, then that's the result they got. Another experiment, trying to prove the electron was a wave, also verified that theory. The problem was, which was right?

Schrodinger used the cat in the box to explain the "dual-nature" of the electron from both types of experiments. The short analogy is: "watching a phenomenon (or event) changes the nature of the phenomenon". People actually do it all the time. We work a little harder when the boss is around, we (try to) watch our language around small children, etc etc.

Schrodinger is trying to get us to see that, until you actually look in the box, or do the experiment, the cat (the electron) is BOTH wave-like and particle-like at the same time, and only when you open the box (do the experiment) does the OBSERVATION of the cat (electron) confirm which state it is in, dead (wave) or alive (particle).

Better?

Answer 2

Thank you so much for replying! I need to go to a lecture right now, but I'll give this a read through as soon as I get home this evening! Thank you, again! :-)

Answer 3

also there are a couple of conclusions and extension that we can derive from the schrodinger's cat thought experiment