- #1
cosmic_tears
- 49
- 0
Hello everybody :)
Well, I'm past my first Quantum course examination, with a satisfactory grade. Trouble is, there are some really basic things I still don't get, and somehow, everybody seems to shrug when I ask them about it. My profesor tries to explain but I fail to understand, so I thought I'd give it a shot here:
I don't get Schrödinger's cat's experiment:
The whole idea is that the cat's state is a superposition of "alive" and "dead", and only when a measurement of the cat's status is done, will the state function collapse into an eigenfunction of the result, meaning, "alive" or "dead", I guess.
However, when a state function collapses, it collapses relative to anybody, right? I mean, it's not relative to the one making the measurement, but the state will become the new state for everyone else in the world.
My question is - how come the cat itself, by being, isn't forming a measurement of his status? I mean, the cat knows if he's alive or not, right? It's like you'd tell me I cannot know if I'm dead or alive until somebody comes to this room and checks me out.
So, the cat, by being, knows he's alive, for example, and therefore a measurement has been made. The state function has already collapsed. What meaning therefore is there to the opening of the box?
Moreover - what's the difference between a cat and an electron? This whole issue is very confusing, since the student always gets the feeling the thing that matters is "conciousness" of a living being. It's like quantum physics only has meaning if there are living entities around. But my profesor cleared up the fact that life itself has nothing to do with it. What then, is the difference between a cat and an electron? Could this experiment be described as "Schrodinger's electron" instead? (Only less amusing, of course)?
I'm reading the topic on the net (Wiki for example), but the explenations there are totally unsatisfactory. I'd be really thankful for anyone who could clear this issue up for me.
Thank you!
Tomer.
Well, I'm past my first Quantum course examination, with a satisfactory grade. Trouble is, there are some really basic things I still don't get, and somehow, everybody seems to shrug when I ask them about it. My profesor tries to explain but I fail to understand, so I thought I'd give it a shot here:
I don't get Schrödinger's cat's experiment:
The whole idea is that the cat's state is a superposition of "alive" and "dead", and only when a measurement of the cat's status is done, will the state function collapse into an eigenfunction of the result, meaning, "alive" or "dead", I guess.
However, when a state function collapses, it collapses relative to anybody, right? I mean, it's not relative to the one making the measurement, but the state will become the new state for everyone else in the world.
My question is - how come the cat itself, by being, isn't forming a measurement of his status? I mean, the cat knows if he's alive or not, right? It's like you'd tell me I cannot know if I'm dead or alive until somebody comes to this room and checks me out.
So, the cat, by being, knows he's alive, for example, and therefore a measurement has been made. The state function has already collapsed. What meaning therefore is there to the opening of the box?
Moreover - what's the difference between a cat and an electron? This whole issue is very confusing, since the student always gets the feeling the thing that matters is "conciousness" of a living being. It's like quantum physics only has meaning if there are living entities around. But my profesor cleared up the fact that life itself has nothing to do with it. What then, is the difference between a cat and an electron? Could this experiment be described as "Schrodinger's electron" instead? (Only less amusing, of course)?
I'm reading the topic on the net (Wiki for example), but the explenations there are totally unsatisfactory. I'd be really thankful for anyone who could clear this issue up for me.
Thank you!
Tomer.