Schrodinger's Cat Paradox Marks 90 Years as Quantum Question Endures (aeon.co)
(Friday May 02, 2025 @11:20AM (msmash)
from the leave-the-kitty-alone dept.)
- Reference: 0177253369
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/02/0551203/schrodingers-cat-paradox-marks-90-years-as-quantum-question-endures
- Source link: https://aeon.co/essays/no-schrodingers-cat-is-not-alive-and-dead-at-the-same-time
A thought experiment involving a cat trapped in a steel box with a potentially lethal device, first proposed by physicist Erwin Schrodinger in 1935, remains at the center of scientific and philosophical debate as it marks its 90th anniversary.
The paradox, initially published in a technical review of quantum mechanics, presented a scenario where a cat could theoretically exist in a superposition of states -- both alive and dead simultaneously -- until observed, highlighting profound questions about quantum reality. "Schrodinger understood that under no circumstances could his cat be considered to be both alive and dead at the same time," science writer Jim Baggott [1]noted in a recently published essay . Baggott co-authored "Quantum Drama: From the Bohr-Einstein Debate to the Riddle of Entanglement" in 2024.
The thought experiment gained cultural traction largely through science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin's 1974 short story "Schrodinger's Cat," which wrestled with the paradox's philosophical implications. This sparked widespread appearances across literature, film, and television.
The paradox continues to divide physicists between those accepting quantum mechanics as a mathematical framework for prediction and others, like Einstein and Schrodinger himself, who considered the theory fundamentally incomplete.
[1] https://aeon.co/essays/no-schrodingers-cat-is-not-alive-and-dead-at-the-same-time
The paradox, initially published in a technical review of quantum mechanics, presented a scenario where a cat could theoretically exist in a superposition of states -- both alive and dead simultaneously -- until observed, highlighting profound questions about quantum reality. "Schrodinger understood that under no circumstances could his cat be considered to be both alive and dead at the same time," science writer Jim Baggott [1]noted in a recently published essay . Baggott co-authored "Quantum Drama: From the Bohr-Einstein Debate to the Riddle of Entanglement" in 2024.
The thought experiment gained cultural traction largely through science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin's 1974 short story "Schrodinger's Cat," which wrestled with the paradox's philosophical implications. This sparked widespread appearances across literature, film, and television.
The paradox continues to divide physicists between those accepting quantum mechanics as a mathematical framework for prediction and others, like Einstein and Schrodinger himself, who considered the theory fundamentally incomplete.
[1] https://aeon.co/essays/no-schrodingers-cat-is-not-alive-and-dead-at-the-same-time
Honourable mention (Score:2)
by rossdee ( 243626 )
Pixel, the Cat Who Walks through Walls
QM is weird, but so was Newton's model (Score:2)
by quenda ( 644621 )
In 1687, Newton unveiled his universal gravitation model, proposing every atom in your body is pulled by every other atom in the universe. Mind-boggling! Yet, its math was spot-on, accurately predicting cosmic and earthly motion, so it gained acceptance. Two centuries later, Einstein's theory refined gravity, ditching Newton's "action at a distance" oddity.
Quantum mechanics, just a century old, is a stellar model but not reality itself. I’m not betting on a better explanation soon. The universe migh
What "debate"? (Score:1)
There is no "debate", except among the ignorant.