# Apparently Schroedinger's cat IS both dead and alive ... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 14, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678 "2015-04-14T20:44:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/21 "2015-04-15T17:37:31Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I thought the sole purpose of Schrodinger’s Cat was so that Schrodinger could illustrate the absurdity of quantum mechanics if it existed at the macro level. > > “Look if QM played out in the same way at our perceptive levels, this Cat thing would happen. Crazy, hunh?” > > ??? You’re absolutely right. But whatever gave you the idea that I was making serious conjectures about Schroedinger’s thought experiment? I’m only half–serious. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/22 "2015-04-15T18:35:26Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It was a vial of prussic acid that might or might not get broken, not an explosive. None of my statements preclude the existence of the prussic acid vial. > Although it seemed an _awfully_ specific doom for the cat. I wonder could it work on some other level of uncertainty. Let’s say the cat was put in a box with a North Korean peasant with a sharp knife and a hotplate. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/23 "2015-04-15T18:42:29Z")
Schrödinger used the cat as an example of why quantum mechanics is wrong. > [@](#): > > The Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics essentially states that an object in a physical system can simultaneously exist in all possible configurations, but observing the system forces the system to collapse and forces the object into just one of those possible states. Schrödinger disagreed with this interpretation. [http://www.iflscience.com/physics/schrödinger’s-cat-explained](http://www.iflscience.com/physics/schr%C3%B6dinger%E2%80%99s-cat-explained) That most people think it explains anything is hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/24 "2015-04-15T18:49:11Z")
> [@](#): > > “Our results suggest that, if there is objective reality, the wavefunction corresponds to this reality,” Mr Ringbauer said. > > In other words, Schrödinger’s cat really is in a state of being both alive and dead. > **[Quantum reality check](http://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2015/02/quantum-reality-check)** > > Schrödinger’s cat highlights a long-standing dilemma in quantum mechanics: is the cat really alive and dead, or is the weirdness just in our head? The phrase “if there is objective reality” should be a red flag. Both “objective” and “reality” are words, with perhaps meanings. But since we decide the meaning, in essence what the term means is up to us. so it isn’t objective. It’s a Catch 22, or something. the statement “a state of being both alive and dead” is meaningless. It’s like claiming something is in “a state of being both real and not real”. When you use words like that, logical people create cat thought experiments to mock you. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/25 "2015-04-15T19:16:44Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > I prefer to look at it from the point of view of the cat too. The way he sees it, the physicist is an asshole. why? [Cats like boxes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rDCdqeTD0o) ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/26 "2015-04-15T19:38:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > But the entire point of Schroedinger’s _gedankenexperiment_ was to relate “weird” quantum effects to the scale of the Real World of common experience. No, and the fact that this is still even an argument (and it certainly is), is hilarious at a quantum level. [It shows the power of “belief” in matters of science.](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1355219806000086) Your practical person, who owns a cat or two, knows if the cat is dead or not. Based on the noise coming from the goddamn box. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/27 "2015-04-15T19:42:11Z")
> [@simster](#): > > why? [Cats like boxes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rDCdqeTD0o) Perhaps, but if mine is any indication, cats don’t like boxers. The cat simply ignores the boxer, who just wants to be friends, and causes said boxer to whine. Or not. Still unsettled by modern science, however, is whether cats like [boxsters](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.caranddriver.com/images/14q2/584476/2015-porsche-boxster-gts-first-drive-review-car-and-driver-photo-599993-s-429x262.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.caranddriver.com/porsche/boxster&h=175&w=287&tbnid=fq0FUUbVu96H9M:&zoom=1&tbnh=122&tbnw=200&usg=__hSKP1oFhQNRQ5m5MQgx7kDzlyUg=&docid=4GK0EbJOToCpvM&itg=1). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/28 "2015-04-15T20:58:26Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > No, and the fact that this is still even an argument (and it certainly is), is hilarious at a quantum level. > > [It shows the power of “belief” in matters of science.](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1355219806000086) > > Your practical person, who owns a cat or two, knows if the cat is dead or not. Based on the noise coming from the goddamn box. Yes – you say so yourself ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/29 "2015-04-15T21:00:15Z")
> [@simster](#): > > why? [Cats like boxes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rDCdqeTD0o) Being in boxes, yes. Being shoved in boxes with vials of poison, less so. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/30 "2015-04-15T21:22:57Z")
One must, in discussions like this, post a link to [one of Cecil’s best columns.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/113/the-story-of-schroedingers-cat-an-epic-poem) “No grease monkey I, but a quantum mechanic.” ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/31 "2015-04-16T00:20:58Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > Being in boxes, yes. Being shoved in boxes with vials of poison, less so. so, cats want to be in and out of the box at the same time ? ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678/32 "2015-04-16T00:32:06Z")
> [@Saltire](#): > > One must, in discussions like this, post a link to [one of Cecil’s best columns.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/113/the-story-of-schroedingers-cat-an-epic-poem) Thanks for that. (spoiler following, go read the poem first) > [@](#): > > So saith Herr Erwin. Quoth Albert, “You’re nuts. > God doesn’t play dice with the universe, putz. > I’ll prove it!” he said, and the Lord knows he tried — > In vain — until fin’ly he more or less died. > Win spoke at the funeral: “Listen, dear friends, > Sweet Al was my buddy. I must make amends. > Though he doubted my theory, I’ll say of this saint: > Ten-to-one he’s in heaven — but five bucks says he ain’t.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apparently-schroedingers-cat-is-both-dead-and-alive/717678.md?page=1)