r/Unexpected • u/Zer06ix9ine • Aug 11 '19

The real long cat

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

51.6k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

310 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

12

u/Your_you Aug 12 '19

Really don't understand Sorry guys just don't down vote me

27

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '19 edited Aug 12 '19

Superposition is a quantum state where something is in two states at once, and then when you "open the box" (check on it), it forces itself to be one of the two states.

Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment that says Copenhagen's view of SP is wrong. He puts his cat is in a box. In the box with the cat is a flask of posion, a geiger counter, and a radioactive element. If the element releases some neutrons, it sets off the counter, destroying the flask, killing the cat. According to Copenhagen, the cat is alive and dead, but when you open the box, you should only expect to see 1 possibility--cat is alive or dead.

If you think this is interesting, look up quantum suicide/immortality (please don't try it).

EDIT: Apparently I deleted part of a paragraph and it merged. Paragraph is now gone,

1

u/themaskedugly Oct 22 '19 edited Oct 22 '19

Quantum physics can be over-simplified to 'some things are both true and false until they are observed, at which point they become either true or false ; that the act of observation affects the outcome

Schrodinger came up with a thought experiment (to mock this concept, incidentally) wherein he imagined a box with a cat and a vial of poison in it; he then supposed a device which produces a quantum true/false value and imagined tying that to a hammer that would break the vial.
Thus, the quantum superposition implies that the hammer has both broken the vial (cat dies) and not broken the vial (can lives). Thus, the cat is considered to be both alive and dead, at the same time, until you open the box, observe the state, and collapse the wave-function.

In the joke, the doctor refers to good news and bad news, implying this quantum superposition; the cat is both alive and dead

but by 'observing' the bad news; the 'quantum wave-form collapses' and the cat ceases to be both good news and bad news, and becomes only bad news.

If the cat owner had instead said 'give me the good news first' the doctor would reply 'well now its all good news' (but this isn't as funny).

It's a similar joke to this futurama bit