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
It’s a joke he made to show how a lot of people misinterpret quantum theory.
Your confusion is EXACTLY what he was going for!
Sometimes people put things down on paper that seem to add up, but don’t actually make any sense in the real world.
So, the idea is – I can imagine different outcomes for the same event before it happens (superposition) and prepare for them (mathematically), then when I find out which one it actually is (state collapse) I am ready for it!
Back in the day when people were first learning this they thought it meant “all the things were really happening all at once until someone looked at it, then somehow magically just the one thing would become real” like we have super powers or something. So Schrodinger made his ridiculous “cat thought experiment” to show them how silly that would be.
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