Think of a vial of poison, a radioactive atom, and a cat, inside a sealed box. What comes to your mind first? A very unlucky cat. Yes, that's Schrödinger's cat. Inside the box, quantum rules dictate the cat's fate. Is that cat survive the situation? Is the cat alive or dead? This thought experiment isn't about animal cruelty. This is about how strange quantum physics becomes when we compare it with our everyday world. For a long time, this thought experiment was wrongly understood. By the end of this article, you'll know what this experiment says and what not. What is Schrödinger’s Cat? Schrödinger’s Cat is a thought experiment proposed by Erwin Schrödinger to illustrate a paradox of quantum superposition by tying a cat's fate to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur. Quantum mechanics says atoms can exist in a superposition state, i.e., it can be in multiple states simultaneously - both decayed and undecayed, until we measure it. By extending thi...
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