I don’t understand..
When we observe it, we can define it’s state right? But it was never in both states. It was only in one, we just didn’t know which one it is. It’s not like if I go back in time and open the box at a different time, that the outcome will be different. It is one of the 2 outcomes, we just don’t know which one until we look. And when we look we discover which one it was, it was never the 2 at the same time. This is what’s been bugging me. Can anyone help explain it? Or am I thinking about it wrong?
In: Physics
I am not a physicist, but here is my limited knowledge and understanding of the thought experiment.
It seems like you are taking the experiment literally; I open the box now, the cat is alive, I go back in time and open it, the cat is alive, how can this be?
Schrödinger’s cat is a thought experiment regarding quantum superposition. Basically, he uses the cat as an analogy of determining the position of quantum particles. This is his interpretation of quantum particles being a wave function, existing over a select volume of space with a probability of being in any one point of said space.
How this then relates to the cat is that you can only confirm/determine the exact position of the particle at the moment a photon bounces of it and hits your eye; the act of observing the particle.
So, bringing this back to the cat, the live status of the cat simply represents the position of the quantum particle. It is a probability of live or dead, but only when you open the box and directly observe it, you will get the exact status of the cat.
I have left out the bottle of toxins and the hair trigger set to release the toxin out as I think that may complicate my demonstration to you.
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