OK, so can someone explain to me the difference between these two scenarios:
1 - we do Schroedinger's cat experiment.
2 - we stick a dude in a box with a coin, a cat, and a club, and he kills the fucking cat if the coin flip comes up heads.
Assume that there's no way for information to get out of the box until we actually open it and look inside. In either situation, it seems to me that we've got a 50/50 chance when we open the box of seeing a live versus a dead cat. After the magic moment has passed (one half-life or the dude's flipped the coin), we've got either a dead cat or a live cat, not like 50% of a live cat, we just don't (can't) know which until we actually look.
I've seen people arguing that setup (1) is different because of QUANTUMS, but I've never had it adequately explained to me how a random quantum event is different from any other random event.
Quantum Physics is bunk. You can't argue with Schroedinger.
Name:
Anonymous2008-03-25 16:21
>>30
Yeah, Schroedinger actually devised the analogy in an attempt to refute what he saw as a ridiculous consequence of the mathematical treatment of quantum physics.
And then it got used in lectures around the world for precisely the opposite aim =D
Hey girl I got somethin' real important to give you
So just sit down and listen
Girl you know we've been together such a long long time
And now I'm ready to lay it on the line
You know it's Christmas and my heart is open wide
Gonna give you something so you know what's on my mind
A gift real special, so take off the top
Take a look inside -- it's my cat in a box
Not gonna get you a diamond ring
That sort of gift don't mean anything
Not gonna get you a fancy car
Girl ya gotta know you're my shining star
Not gonna get you a house in the hills
A girl like you needs somethin' real
Wanna get you somethin' from the heart
Somethin' special girl
It's my cat in a box, my cat in a box babe
It's my cat in a box, my cat in a box girl
See I'm wise enough to know when a gift needs givin'
And I got just the one, somethin' to show ya that you are second to none
To all the fellas out there with ladies to impress
It's easy to do just follow these steps
1: Open that box
2: Put your cat in that box with a Geiger counter containing a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the 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.
3: Make her open the box
And that's the way you do it
It's my cat in a box... my cat in a box babe
It's my cat in a box, my cat in a box girl
Christmas; cat in a box
Hanukkah; cat in a box
Kwanzaa; a cat in a box
Every single holiday a cat in a box
Over at your parent's house a cat in a box
Mid day at the grocery store a cat in a box
Backstage at the CMA's a cat in a box
Yeah-wow-wow-wow-wow-wow
A cat in a box...
Name:
Anonymous2008-03-27 21:56
This doesn't really answer your question, but one difference is that with radiation, the sample may not decay at a steady rate. Say the half-life of a sample is 30 days. After 29 days, it's possible (though extremely unlikely) that the sample has not decayed at all, and half of it will decay in the last second of those 30 days. Half-life is an average, not a set rate.
Again, I'm pretty sure this doesn't answer your question, but maybe someone who's had more physics can take it from there.
>>38
Even if nothing happens to the sample for 29 days, it's pretty unlikely that half the sample will decay in that final day. The probability that half the sample will decay in 1 day can be calculated from the Poisson distribution.