__ __
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this is my favorite experiment, and it COULD be done....now..not back then but it is possible, in 1935, erwin schroedinger congratulated Albert Einstein on what is now known as the EPR paper, a famous problem in the interpretation of quantum mechanics. After, he wrote what was to become one of the most celebrated paradoxes in the quantum theory: Schroedinger's Cat: A cat is placed in a box, together with a radioactive atom. If the atom decays, and the geiger-counter detects an alpha particle, the hammer hits a tube of prusic acid , killing the cat. The paradox lies in the clever theorum of quantum and classical domains. Before the person opens the box, the cat's fate is tied to the wav function of the atom, which is itself in a superposition of decayed and undecayed states. So.... Schroedinger said, the cat must itself be in a superposition of dead and alive states before the person opens the box, And 'observes' the cat, and 'collapses' it's wave function. And the cat is either 1) Dead as the tube broke. OR 2) Alive as it didn't. But before breaking its wave function it is both, unknown to the person observing the cat until the box is opened..... @krag: the answer is human.
< Message edited by __ __ -- 8/1/2009 1:00:46 >
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