This is actually the first time of my life, if I recall correctly, that all the reading I did on Quantum Mechanics pays off in some positive way.
My cat Jucifa has vanished and went missing almost two weeks ago. And I am very, very sad about that.
Now Schrödinger. In a paper – called the EPR paper – to Einstein, he put down a paradox in Quantum Theory, that has me baffled, along with just about everyone who occupies him- or herself with Quantum Physics. It’s about the difference between the state of a particle, when observed and when not observed.
When a radioactive particle is not observed, it exists in a wave function, a super-state of decay and non decay. When it is observed, however, it behaves like a point-particle. So as soon as we look at the particle, the wave-function collapses and the particle decays.
In this perspective, take a look at the Uncertainty Principle postulated by Werner Heisenberg. He makes the collapse of the wave-function clear. He states that we can only know two specific parameters of a particle: speed, direction, location or spin, thereby making it impossible to know the other two. I always mix up which ones belong together, so take a look here to get a better picture.
So Schrödinger, who actually might have been making a joke (who knows), made his famous Cat-in-the-Box model, “Schrödingers Cat” in short. His cat is sitting in a closed box. The animal is unobserved. In this box also sits a Geiger detector and one radioactive particle . The Geiger counter, in turn, is connected to a device that sprays poisoned gas into the box as soon as it detects the decay of the particle, thus killing the cat.
Before the box is opened, the particles wave function exists. But, states Schrödinger, the cat itself is connected to the wave function of the particle. The particle is in a super-state of decay and non-decay. The cat, therefore, is in a similar super-state. It is dead as well as alive. And only when we open the box, and observe the particle, the wave-function collapses and the particle decays. The Geiger detector notices this, activates the spray and kills the cat. His wave-function collapses as well, so to speak.
Now Jucifa. I have no idea as to his whereabouts. He sits, as it were, unobserved in the box of my ignorance. So, in a sense, he is dead as well as alive too; just like Schödingers Cat. That thought, for some reason, comforts me. And it doesn’t. My mind is in a super state of comfort as well as despair. But I would rather have Jucifa sitting in his own box, here at home, next to the sofa, watching his favorite TV program, observed by me, but saved from any wave-function collapses.
