Schrödinger's Cat For Dummies?

[skb12172]

I've read the following link, but I still don't feel comfortable with my understanding of the concept. Can someone here explain it in a way that is understandable for a gun nut with three liberal arts degrees? Please and thank you. Fire Away!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat

[Catbird]

This explaination by Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope is as good a start as any:

The story of Schroedinger's cat (an epic poem)

May 7, 1982

Dear Cecil:

Cecil, you're my final hope
Of finding out the true Straight Dope
For I have been reading of Schroedinger's cat
But none of my cats are at all like that.
This unusual animal (so it is said)
Is simultaneously live and dead!
What I don't understand is just why he
Can't be one or other, unquestionably.
My future now hangs in between eigenstates.
In one I'm enlightened, the other I ain't.
If you understand, Cecil, then show me the way
And rescue my psyche from quantum decay.
But if this queer thing has perplexed even you,
Then I will and won't see you in Schroedinger's zoo.

— Randy F., Chicago

Cecil replies:

Schroedinger, Erwin! Professor of physics!
Wrote daring equations! Confounded his critics!
(Not bad, eh? Don't worry. This part of the verse
Starts off pretty good, but it gets a lot worse.)
Win saw that the theory that Newton'd invented
By Einstein's discov'ries had been badly dented.
What now? wailed his colleagues. Said Erwin, "Don't panic,
No grease monkey I, but a quantum mechanic.
Consider electrons. Now, these teeny articles
Are sometimes like waves, and then sometimes like particles.
If that's not confusing, the nuclear dance
Of electrons and suchlike is governed by chance!
No sweat, though — my theory permits us to judge
Where some of 'em is and the rest of 'em was."
Not everyone bought this. It threatened to wreck
The comforting linkage of cause and effect.
E'en Einstein had doubts, and so Schroedinger tried
To tell him what quantum mechanics implied.
Said Win to Al, "Brother, suppose we've a cat,
And inside a tube we have put that cat at —
Along with a solitaire deck and some Fritos,
A bottle of Night Train, a couple mosquitoes
(Or something else rhyming) and, oh, if you got 'em,
One vial prussic acid, one decaying ottom
Or atom — whatever — but when it emits,
A trigger device blasts the vial into bits
Which snuffs our poor kitty. The odds of this crime
Are 50 to 50 per hour each time.
The cylinder's sealed. The hour's passed away. Is
Our pussy still purring — or pushing up daisies?
Now, you'd say the cat either lives or it don't
But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won't.
Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke),
Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked.
To some this may seem a ridiculous split,
But quantum mechanics must answer, "Tough shit.
We may not know much, but one thing's fo' sho':
There's things in the cosmos that we cannot know.
Shine light on electrons — you'll cause them to swerve.
The act of observing disturbs the observed —
Which ruins your test. But then if there's no testing
To see if a particle's moving or resting
Why try to conjecture? Pure useless endeavor!
We know probability — certainty, never.'
The effect of this notion? I very much fear
'Twill make doubtful all things that were formerly clear.
Till soon the cat doctors will say in reports,
"We've just flipped a coin and we've learned he's a corpse."'
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."

— Cecil Adams

Bob the Angry Flower's take is kinda funny.

[Aglifter]

Erm, Schrodinger's cat is the explanation for liberal arts majors...

I will leave the explanation of quantum mechanics to someone who has used it in less than 10 years...

[Darrell]

There was a young man from Trinity
Who took the square root of infinity
But the number of digits
Gave him the fidgets
He dropped math and took up divinity

[Rich]

Here is an old chestnut.

There was a young lady named Bright
Who's speed was faster than light
She went out one day
In a relative way
And returned the previous night.

[MarkD]

Here's a little video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOYyCHG ... ture=plcp


Disclaimer: I am neither a quantum mechanic, nor do I play on TV, and I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

Quantum theory deals with probabilities, and the quantum state (in this case the state of the cat) is determined when it's observed. Therefore, before observation,the cat exists in a superstate where it's BOTH alive and dead, the act of looking into the box causes the superstate to collapse into the actual state.

Quantum mechanics is seriously weird. It all comes down to the math, they first figure out the equations then determine what those equations mean. For someone like me whose mathematical ability ends with algebra, you might as well try to teach your dog to speak Russian with a Japanese accent than try to teach me the math involved.

[evan price]

If a man speaks in a forest and there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

[cu74]

If a man speaks in a forest and there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

According to my sister, the answer is, "Yes".

[Aegis]

Erm, Schrodinger's cat is the explanation for liberal arts majors...

I will leave the explanation of quantum mechanics to someone who has used it in less than 10 years...

Just because I've used it in the last ten years doesn't mean I actually understood anything about... But yeah, the entire cat thing was intentionally created to illustrate just how ridiculous the math involved is, rather than a serious assertion that the cat could be either alive or dead until you opened the box.

[skb12172]

Thanks, Guys. I understand that the act of observation is what is supposed to collapse the "alive" reality. However, I do not understand, math or not, how the act of outside observation should matter. Clearly, from the observative point-of-view of the cat, there is only one reality.