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'''[[Schrödinger's cat]]''' is a seemingly [[physical paradox|paradoxical]] [[thought experiment]] devised by [[Erwin Schrödinger]] that attempts to illustrate the incompleteness of the theory of [[quantum mechanics]] when going from subatomic to macroscopic systems. In 1935, Schrödinger published an essay describing the conceptual problems in quantum mechanics. A brief paragraph in this essay described the cat paradox: |
{{unsourced}}'''[[Schrödinger's cat]]''' is a seemingly [[physical paradox|paradoxical]] [[thought experiment]] devised by [[Erwin Schrödinger]] that attempts to illustrate the incompleteness of the theory of [[quantum mechanics]] when going from subatomic to macroscopic systems. In 1935, Schrödinger published an essay describing the conceptual problems in quantum mechanics. A brief paragraph in this essay described the cat paradox: |
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:One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following diabolical device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a [[Geiger counter]] there is a tiny bit of [[radioactivity|radioactive]] substance, so small that perhaps in the course of one hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of [[hydrocyanic acid]]. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The first atomic decay would have poisoned it. The [[wavefunction|Psi function]] for the entire system would express this by having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.{{ref|essay}} |
:One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following diabolical device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a [[Geiger counter]] there is a tiny bit of [[radioactivity|radioactive]] substance, so small that perhaps in the course of one hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of [[hydrocyanic acid]]. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The first atomic decay would have poisoned it. The [[wavefunction|Psi function]] for the entire system would express this by having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.{{ref|essay}} |
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==Introduction== |
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It was not long before science-fiction writers picked up this evocative concept, often using it in a humorous vein. Several have taken the thought experiment a step further, pointing out or extra complications which might arise should the experiment actually be performed. For example, in his novel ''[[American Gods]],'' [[Neil Gaiman]] has a character observe, "if they don't ever open the box to feed it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead." Likewise, [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Lords and Ladies (novel)|Lords and Ladies]]'' adds the issue of a third possible state, in the case of [[Greebo]], "Bloody Furious". [[Douglas Adams]] describes an attempt to enact the experiment in ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]].'' By using [[clairvoyance]] to see inside the box, it was found that the cat was neither alive nor dead, but missing, and Dirk's services were employed in order to recover it. |
It was not long before science-fiction writers picked up this evocative concept, often using it in a humorous vein. Several have taken the thought experiment a step further, pointing out or extra complications which might arise should the experiment actually be performed. For example, in his novel ''[[American Gods]],'' [[Neil Gaiman]] has a character observe, "if they don't ever open the box to feed it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead." Likewise, [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Lords and Ladies (novel)|Lords and Ladies]]'' adds the issue of a third possible state, in the case of [[Greebo]], "Bloody Furious". [[Douglas Adams]] describes an attempt to enact the experiment in ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]].'' By using [[clairvoyance]] to see inside the box, it was found that the cat was neither alive nor dead, but missing, and Dirk's services were employed in order to recover it. |
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In addition, the name "Schrödinger" has itself become an [[inside joke]], often employed to elicit a chuckle from those familiar with physics. In an episode of the [[1940s]] [[radio drama]] "Maddox's Bedtime Stories for Kid Geniuses" entitled "Little Eve and Gogo", the main character is a teenage female scientist named Kat Schrödinger. Cats named Schrödinger appear in the television series ''[[Sliders]]'' and ''[[Stargate SG-1]],'' for example, as well as in [[Carol Hill]]'s [[feminist science fiction]] novel ''The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer''. The animated series ''[[Futurama]],'' several of whose production team had advanced degrees in science and math, includes many jokes of this sort; in the episode "A Clone of My Own", a brief shot reveals a nightclub called "Schrödinger's Kit-Kat Club" (also an allusion to ''[[Cabaret (film)|Cabaret]]''). [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s novel ''[[The Cat Who Walks Through Walls]]'' features a cat named Pixel, affectionately termed "Schrödinger's Cat" due to his ability to be wherever his favorite person is. Pixel's ability to walk through walls is due to the fact that he does not know that it is impossible. |
In addition, the name "Schrödinger" has itself become an [[inside joke]], often employed to elicit a chuckle from those familiar with physics. In an episode of the [[1940s]] [[radio drama]] "Maddox's Bedtime Stories for Kid Geniuses" entitled "Little Eve and Gogo", the main character is a teenage female scientist named Kat Schrödinger. Cats named Schrödinger appear in the television series ''[[Sliders]]'' and ''[[Stargate SG-1]],'' for example, as well as in [[Carol Hill]]'s [[feminist science fiction]] novel ''The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer''. The animated series ''[[Futurama]],'' several of whose production team had advanced degrees in science and math, includes many jokes of this sort; in the episode "A Clone of My Own", a brief shot reveals a nightclub called "Schrödinger's Kit-Kat Club" (also an allusion to ''[[Cabaret (film)|Cabaret]]''). [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s novel ''[[The Cat Who Walks Through Walls]]'' features a cat named Pixel, affectionately termed "Schrödinger's Cat" due to his ability to be wherever his favorite person is. Pixel's ability to walk through walls is due to the fact that he does not know that it is impossible. |
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==Other assorted examples== |
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===Books and stories=== |
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*In his [[discworld]] novel ''[[Lords and Ladies]]'', author [[Terry Pratchett]] adds an additional result to the thought experiment, stating: "In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and ''Bloody Furious''." |
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*[[John Gribbin]]'s 1984 bestseller [[In Search of Schrödinger's Cat]] is a layman's guide to [[Quantum Physics]]; it includes a brief history and discussion of the philosophical implications. |
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* The ''[[Schrödinger's Cat trilogy]]'' is the name commonly given to a trilogy of [[science fiction]]/[[conspiracy theory]] novels written by [[Robert Anton Wilson]]. It consists of ''[[The Universe Next Door]]'', ''[[The Trick Top Hat]]'' and ''[[The Homing Pigeons]]''. |
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* [[Steve Martin]]'s 1998 book ''Pure Drivel'' includes a piece entitled "Schrödinger's Cat", which presents a summary of the theory, followed by several fictitious, nonsensical theories, including "Wittgenstein's Banana", "Apollo's Non-Apple Non-Strudel", and "Chef Boyardee's Bungee Cord" (which begins, "A bungee cord is hooked at one end to a neutrino, while the other end is hooked to a vibraphone...") |
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* A two-headed cat, one head being conscious the other sleeping or presumably dead, appears in one of [[Christopher Stasheff]]'s series of "Her Majesties Wizard" novels, along with other thought experiment beings, the most notable being [[Maxwell's Demon]]. |
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* [[George Alec Effinger]]'s novelette, "[[Schrödinger's Kitten]]" (1988), received both the Hugo and the Nebula Award. ''Schrödinger's Kitten'' was published in book form in 1992. |
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* [[Greg Bear]]'s short Story ''Schrödinger's Plague'' (appearing in the collection ''[[Tangents (collection)|Tangents]]'') deals with a group of scientists who are unwittingly subjected to a similar experiment in which they both are and are not infected with a disease that will wipe out humanity: In this case "opening the chamber" (discovering for certain that they are infected or even simply believing they are infected) may mean dooming humanity. |
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*In the [[Manga]] '''HAL'''(Hyper Academic Laborotory), a Schrödinger's cat appeared as a cat inside the box where every time you open it, it is shifted from dead to alive or vice versa depending on the life or death last time the box was opened. |
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* [[Adam Felber]]'s novel ''[[Schodinger's Ball]]'' is a comic exploration of the theory. |
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* [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] 's sci-fi short story "Schrödinger's Cat" from ''[[The Compass Rose]]'' (1982) imagines the third option where the cat simply isn't there when the box is opened |
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* [[Mark Fabi]]'s novel ''[[Wyrm (novel)|Wyrm]]'' features a Schrödinger's cat whose tomb has not yet been opened and who therefore lives in an indeterminate/ethereal state appearing as a disembodied [[Cheshire Cat]] with an almost [[omniscient]] knowledge of the immediate environment. |
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* [[Robina Williams]]'s two novels ''[[Jerome and the Seraph (novel)|Jerome and the Seraph]]'' and ''[[Angelos (novel)|Angelos]]'' features Schrödinger's cat as the main character. |
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* [[Douglas Adams]]'s ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'', makes reference to a Shrodinger's cat experiment where the cat disappears; however, Detective Dirk Gentley deduces that "nothing very dramatic had happened" and the cat merely escaped. It took Dirk a moment to set a saucer of milk by the window and call the cats name to restore the cat which through [[interconnectedness]] started his career. <ref>Douglas Adams, ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' (1988), 155.</ref> |
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===Audio/Visual media=== |
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* In the episode of ''[[NUMB3RS]]'' entitled "Identity Crisis", Charlie re-phrases Schrödinger's Cat to illustrate the point that the tests used to disprove/prove a murder suspect's identity are built on a false premise. |
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* The [[anime]] ''[[Noein]]'' thrives heavily on several theories of [[quantum physics]]. Most particularly, it uses the concept of the [[Many-Worlds Interpretation]] alongside the theory of the [[Copenhagen Interpretation]]. Schrödinger's cat is mentioned a number of times throughout the series. |
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* A [[Netherlands|Dutch]] short movie from [[1990]] is called ''Schrödingers kat''. A teacher explains the theory to his class. At the same time a man called Schrödinger (played by [[Bruno Ganz]]) dies of a heart attack in his apartment, while neighbours assume he is still alive and send him Christmas cards. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210966/] |
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* ''Schrödingers katt'' is a [[Norway|Norwegian]] weekly science television program on [[NRK]]. |
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* At the beginning of an a comic strip of [[Jack B. Quick]], Jack can be seen putting his pet cat in a box as part of what he says to his parents is 'a science experiment'. |
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* ''Schrödinger's Cat'' is the title of the b-side track to [[Vega 4]]'s single Traffic Jam. |
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* In [[Higurashi no naku koro ni]], Schrödinger's cat is mentioned in a poem by an enigmatic figure named Frederika Berncastle: |
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<blockquote> |
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Please tell me what happened in this night.<br> |
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It's like the cat inside the box. |
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Please tell me what happened in this night.<br> |
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You don't know if the cat in the box is dead or alive. |
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Please tell me what happened in this night.<br> |
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The cat in the box was dead. |
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</blockquote> |
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*The [[Peter Hammill]] album "Singularity" (2006) opens with a track called "Our Eyes Give It Shape" which refers metaphorically to Schrödinger's cat and the observer effect: |
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<blockquote> |
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there can be no false or true,<br> |
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I want to have it all, I want to see the whole thing through...<br> |
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It's a fifty-fifty call: maybe Schrödinger's cat<br> |
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could be the Cheshire one too? |
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</blockquote> |
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===Games=== |
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* In both ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]: [[Digital Devil Saga]]'' games, Schrödinger is the name of a cat that always seems to be at the right place at the right time. |
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* In the Japanese [[visual novel]] game [[Memories Off]]~Sorekara~, the theory of "Schrödinger's Cat" is an indirect analogy to the character Non-chan, a girl who lost her father in her early childhood. Unwilling to accept the truth for years, Non-chan always believed that if she hadn't seen her father's death personally (without observation), then the "state" of him would have remained unknown. |
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*In the [[Playstation]] game ''[[Silent Hill]]'', the school area features a locker with a rustling door. In the regular universe, a cat jumps out of the locker, but in the "dark" universe, there is only blood in the locker. |
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*In ''[[Wild Arms 3]]'', a traveling family called the Schroedingers have a talking pet cat named Shady. Shady happens to be claustrophobic where one time he becomes trapped inside an enclosed forcefield running around fearing the possibility of poison gas. |
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=== Appearance in other media === |
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* Term "Schrödinger's Terrorist" has been used a semi-humorous way to refer to famous personalities whose vital status and/or health is unknown and/or subject to contradictory rumors. Examples of this include the status of [[Yasser Arafat]]{{ref|ter1}}{{ref|ter2}} during last days of his life and [[Osama bin Laden]], of whom [[Donald Rumsfeld]] quipped that "He's either alive, or he's alive and injured badly, or he's dead."{{ref|ter3}} |
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* In [[1982]] [[Cecil Adams]], in his column ''[[Straight Dope|The Straight Dope]]'', wrote a concise and humorous description of the thought experiment, and [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]'s refutation of same, in the form of an [[epic poetry|epic poem]]. "The story of Schroedinger's cat (an epic poem)" [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_122.html] |
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* The online retailer [[ThinkGeek]] sells a t-shirt that has the words "Schrödinger's cat is dead" on the front and "Schrödinger's Cat is not dead" on the back |
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* According to the character's storyline in the ''[[Transformers: Alternators|Transformers; Binaltech]]'' toy series, [[Ravage (Transformers)|Ravage]]'s Beast Wars incarnation's personality was stored in a [[flight recorder]] found by a group of scientists who referred to it as Schrödinger's Box. It was named this because it contained the personality of a (since long dead) future version of the [[Decepticon]] panther, while his present version was still alive (hence the same character being both alive and dead at the same time). |
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==References== |
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<references/> |
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*{{note|essay}}[[Erwin Schrödinger|E. Schrödinger]], ''Die gegenwartige Situation in der Quantenmechanik, Naturwissenschaftern.'' 23: pp. 807-812; 823-823, 844-849. (1935). English translation: John D. Trimmer, ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 124, pp. 323-38 (1980), reprinted in ''Quantum Theory and Measurement,'' p. 152 (1983). |
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*{{note|ter1}}{{cite news|title=Schroedinger's Terrorist?|url=http://www.worldwiderant.com/archives/002687.html|date=2004-11-05|accessdate=2007-02-09}} |
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*{{note|ter2}}{{cite news|title=Schroedinger's Terrorist|url=http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2004/11/schroedingers_terrorist.html|date=2004-11-10|accessdate=2007-02-09}} |
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*{{note|ter3}}{{cite news|title=Rumsfeld: No Idea Where Bin Laden Is|url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,87007,00.html|publisher=Fox News|date=2003-05-15|accessdate=2007-02-09}} |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
Revision as of 14:47, 31 July 2007
Schrödinger's cat is a seemingly paradoxical thought experiment devised by Erwin Schrödinger that attempts to illustrate the incompleteness of the theory of quantum mechanics when going from subatomic to macroscopic systems. In 1935, Schrödinger published an essay describing the conceptual problems in quantum mechanics. A brief paragraph in this essay described the cat paradox:
- One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following diabolical device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small that perhaps in the course of one hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The first atomic decay would have poisoned it. The Psi function for the entire system would express this by having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.[1]
It was not long before science-fiction writers picked up this evocative concept, often using it in a humorous vein. Several have taken the thought experiment a step further, pointing out or extra complications which might arise should the experiment actually be performed. For example, in his novel American Gods, Neil Gaiman has a character observe, "if they don't ever open the box to feed it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead." Likewise, Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies adds the issue of a third possible state, in the case of Greebo, "Bloody Furious". Douglas Adams describes an attempt to enact the experiment in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. By using clairvoyance to see inside the box, it was found that the cat was neither alive nor dead, but missing, and Dirk's services were employed in order to recover it.
On a somewhat more serious level, Ian Stewart's novel Flatterland (a sequel to Flatland) attempts to explain many concepts in modern mathematics and physics through the device of having a young female Flatlander explore other parts of the "Mathiverse". Schrödinger's Cat is just one of the many strange Mathiverse denizens she and her guide meet; the cat is still uncertain whether it is alive or dead, long after it left the box. Her guide, the Space Hopper, reassures the Cat with a modern view of quantum decoherence. Ursula K. Le Guin wrote a story entitled "Schrödinger's Cat" in 1974 (reprinted in The Compass Rose, published in 1982), which also deals with decoherence. Greg Egan's novel Quarantine, billed as "a story of quantum catastrophe", features an alternative solution to the paradox: in Egan's version of quantum mechanics, the wave function does not collapse naturally. Only certain living things — human beings among them — collapse the wave function of things they observe. Humans are therefore highly dangerous to other lifeforms which require the full diversity of uncollapsed wavefunctions in order to survive.
As Egan notes, Schrödinger's hypothetical cat is one of the most familiar illustrations of quantum-mechanical oddities. In Quarantine, a physicist asks the narrator, an ex-cop and private investigator, if he has ever heard of "the quantum measurement problem". The narrator is naturally confused, but when asked if he's heard of Schrödinger's Cat, he replies, "Of course."
Fiction writers have confined other animals besides cats in such contraptions. Dan Simmons' novel Endymion begins with hero Raul Endymion sentenced to death by imprisonment in a Schrödinger box. In the fortieth-anniversary Doctor Who audio drama "Zagreus" (2003), the Doctor is locked in a lead-lined box also containing cyanide in an effort to explain his situation of being neither dead nor alive. Afterwards, the Doctor does mention that he had met Schrödinger's Cat.
In addition, the name "Schrödinger" has itself become an inside joke, often employed to elicit a chuckle from those familiar with physics. In an episode of the 1940s radio drama "Maddox's Bedtime Stories for Kid Geniuses" entitled "Little Eve and Gogo", the main character is a teenage female scientist named Kat Schrödinger. Cats named Schrödinger appear in the television series Sliders and Stargate SG-1, for example, as well as in Carol Hill's feminist science fiction novel The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer. The animated series Futurama, several of whose production team had advanced degrees in science and math, includes many jokes of this sort; in the episode "A Clone of My Own", a brief shot reveals a nightclub called "Schrödinger's Kit-Kat Club" (also an allusion to Cabaret). Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls features a cat named Pixel, affectionately termed "Schrödinger's Cat" due to his ability to be wherever his favorite person is. Pixel's ability to walk through walls is due to the fact that he does not know that it is impossible.