http://www.peterdsmith.com/archives/2009/03/28/two-legs-good-four-legs-better-six-legs-brilliant/ Kafka’s mouse Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:49:28 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://www.peterdsmith.com/archives/2009/03/28/two-legs-good-four-legs-better-six-legs-brilliant/comment-page-1/#comment-677 Pippa Goldschmidt Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:20:48 +0000 http://www.peterdsmith.com/?p=468#comment-677 Schrodinger's cat is not just a thought experiment. It was designed to be a reductio ad absurdam to show that the standard Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics fails to describe the 'real' world. Schrodinger thought it was ridiculous to suggest that a real cat could be both alive and dead until observed. Unfortunately it's backfired in some ways, in that it's associated Schrodinger with the idea he sought to discredit. And no one's been able to work out exactly why reality doesn't behave in the way described by the Copenhagen interpretation. Schrodinger's cat is not just a thought experiment. It was designed to be a reductio ad absurdam to show that the standard Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics fails to describe the 'real' world.
Schrodinger thought it was ridiculous to suggest that a real cat could be both alive and dead until observed.
Unfortunately it's backfired in some ways, in that it's associated Schrodinger with the idea he sought to discredit. And no one's been able to work out exactly why reality doesn't behave in the way described by the Copenhagen interpretation.

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