innocent_lex (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
innocent_lex) wrote2008-03-02 08:33 pm
innocent_lex) wrote2008-03-02 08:33 pm
I have a quantum physics quandary (it could be multiple quandaries depending on current theory)
So, Schroedinger's cat. There's this thought experiment where there's a cat in a box, and also in the box is a radioactive isotope and a vial of poison. If the isotope decays it will trigger the vial, the poison is released and the cat dies. So far, so... kind of gross, actually, but let's go with it. The experiment addresses the concept of quantum superposition, whereby a sub-atomic particle is in all states until it is measured / observed, whereupon it collapses into one particular state.
With me so far? The thought experiment goes that due to the bizarre nature of the physics the cat is both dead and alive until someone opens the box and observes the experiment, at which point the superposition collapses and you see the cat as either alive or dead.
Which is extremely odd all on its own, and gets even odder when you ask: why are we excluding the cat from the experiment as an observer? Yes, that's what's been bothering me for days now. And also, the cat is not a sub-atomic particle. And also, how does the particle-cat know it's being observed and therefore have to choose a state (and what if it can't make up its mind?). And quite frankly, extending that experiment into the real world brings all kinds of problems for people who live alone, as they would spend their nights floating around at home like some disembodied and indecisive cloud of particles unless someone else happened to look in the window and see them. Yes, fine, so I'm possibly exaggerating and in reality the single person could become multiple single people in different universes, some of whom watch Torchwood and some don't. Or not.
I think the point of the experiment (this was back in the 1930s) was to remind people that quantum physics was (and still is) incomplete and that people should start thinking a little more intelligently about the problems and how they'd work in reality and not get blinded by pretty maths. But then I've never actually been taught nor studied any quantum physics and am apparently out of my depth on this one. Where's Rodney McKay when you need him?
With me so far? The thought experiment goes that due to the bizarre nature of the physics the cat is both dead and alive until someone opens the box and observes the experiment, at which point the superposition collapses and you see the cat as either alive or dead.
Which is extremely odd all on its own, and gets even odder when you ask: why are we excluding the cat from the experiment as an observer? Yes, that's what's been bothering me for days now. And also, the cat is not a sub-atomic particle. And also, how does the particle-cat know it's being observed and therefore have to choose a state (and what if it can't make up its mind?). And quite frankly, extending that experiment into the real world brings all kinds of problems for people who live alone, as they would spend their nights floating around at home like some disembodied and indecisive cloud of particles unless someone else happened to look in the window and see them. Yes, fine, so I'm possibly exaggerating and in reality the single person could become multiple single people in different universes, some of whom watch Torchwood and some don't. Or not.
I think the point of the experiment (this was back in the 1930s) was to remind people that quantum physics was (and still is) incomplete and that people should start thinking a little more intelligently about the problems and how they'd work in reality and not get blinded by pretty maths. But then I've never actually been taught nor studied any quantum physics and am apparently out of my depth on this one. Where's Rodney McKay when you need him?