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Even if you don't dive deep into the complexities of quantum mechanics, there are some fascinating concepts that are accessible and absolutely intriguing, even for us laypeople. One of the most well-known of these is Schrödinger's cat. Let’s take a closer look at this experiment.

A Closer Look at the Experiment

The story of Schrödinger's cat began in 1935 when Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger attempted to illustrate the puzzling nature of quantum mechanics. He posed the provocative question: Can a cat, locked in a sealed box, be both dead and alive at the same time?

Schrödinger imagined a scenario where a cat is placed inside an opaque box. Inside this box is a mechanism that releases poison as soon as an atom decays – or doesn’t. The unique thing about this atom is that, according to quantum mechanics, it exists in a state of superposition, meaning it has both decayed and not decayed at the same time. Consequently, the cat is both dead and alive – at least until we open the box and observe the situation.

In quantum mechanics, particles can indeed exist in a superposition, where multiple possibilities are true at the same time. Only when we observe the system does it collapse into a single, definite state. This interpretation is known as the Copenhagen interpretation.

What Does This Tell Us About Reality?

Perhaps you've heard of the Many-Worlds Theory, an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics that explains things in a slightly different way. I’ve written an article about it before. This theory, proposed in the 1950s by Hugh Everett, suggests that with each quantum measurement, the universe splits into different branches, where every possible outcome is realized in a separate universe.

In the case of Schrödinger's cat, this means that when you open the box, the universe splits. In one universe, the cat is alive; in another, it’s dead. Both versions exist in parallel, but since we only live in one of these many possible universes, we perceive only one of these realities as "true." This theory opens the door to the fascinating idea that there are countless parallel universes where every imaginable outcome of every quantum event is realized.

Closing Words

I find these thought experiments absolutely fascinating. And in case you're worried about the cat: Don’t panic, it’s purely a thought experiment – it was never actually carried out.