Schrödingers cat paradox

question


What is the shortest description of Schrödingers cat paradox which clearly explains the paradox.

Purpose

The purpose of the question is the following:

  1. In the Schrödingers cat paradox many things are involved which maybe are not important. Should it be a cat in a box?

  2. What is the paradox.

  3. What is the importance of the paradox, what does it try to explain. (I do not like the word prove)

Description

The Schrödingers cat consists of a cat in a box. The Schrödingers cat paradox is based around two events and a state.
The first event is a random event. This is the release of a poisonous gas by a radioactive particle, which will kill the cat.
The second event is an observer who will look inside the box.
The state considered is the state of the cat: live or dead. The paradox is: the cat is only in a particular state after "you" have opened the box and looked inside. Before that moment the cat is not in one or the other state.

Reflection 1

To make the paradox "easier" you could replace the cat by two counters. The release of the radioactive particle stops one counter. The two states considered are: is one counter running or two. When one counter has stopped the number of counts indicates when the radioactive particle was released.

Reflection 2

We all agree that you only know what is inside the box when you open the box and you look inside. This is a strictly human operation. The question of course is can you say anything about what is (the state) in the box before you open the box.
The answer is Yes, however to claim that the cat is in both states together is rather ambiguous. The problem is first that in reality a cat if either living or dead is not in one state but a collection of many. If you close the box and look again the cat is in a different state. Second, Suppose you do the same experiment 99 times and every time you measure the same results A and B. When you do this experiment again and now you only measure A you can be "sure" that the other part is B.
You do not need the Schrödingers cat paradox to make this deduction.

Reflection 3

For some the solution of the paradox lies in a wave function. When you look inside there is a collapse of this wave function.

The problem with this "solution" that the ambiguous concept of being in both states is replaced by a new ambiguous concept: the collapse of a wave function.

Feedback

26/4/96 You can compare Schrödingers cat paradox with a circular polarized photon through a vertically polarizer filter. Before the photon(~the cat) passes, it is both vertically (~cat alife) and horizontally (~cat dead) polarized. After the photon is observed through the filter, it decides by a chance of 50% to pass through the filter (~cat alife) or to be absorbed (~cat dead). So the photon decides to be in a definite state as it is observed.

Comment: I have some doubts with this comparison. A cat is first in one state (alife) and has then a certain chance of going to a different state (dead). The change of state happens independent if we make an observation. A photon is in a combination of two states, partial horizontal and partial vertical polarized. The decission which state is preffered is only know if we do an experiment, ie the photon has to go through the filter.

Last modified: 1 May 1997

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