Somebody already asked this question ([here](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26uzgu/eli5_quantum_mechanics_superpositions/)), but I did not really understand the explanation, and the post was archived so I can’t ask for a more detailed explanation.
In: Physics
Superposition is a common misconception in which things are thought to be in two different states at the same time. The way that an object/particle is indirectly observed can sometimes be written as an equation with two different solutions – or two (or more) possibilities for its state that would show the same result.
Through direct observation, we can sometimes see the actual state. However, direct observation of something like a particle by definition involves interacting with it in some way, which adds bias to the experiment whether we want to or not.
Schrodinger’s cat is a though experiment in which the idea of superposition is explained. We have no way of looking inside the box, and nothing in the box can change anything outside of the box, so to us, the cat could be either dead or alive. Sometimes people think this means that the cat is both dead and alive.
In reality, the cat is not existing in both states. It is either dead, or it is alive. The misconception comes from the fact that to the rest of the universe there is no way to prove if it is dead or alive and thus mathematically it could be either.
Edit: So to clarify, superposition is when something *could* be in *either* state based on indirect observation, not when it is in *both* states simultaneously.
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