It is more than likely that at some point, either at science class or watching a tv show,
you've heard about the Schrödinger's cat.
What you may not know is why this feline with such a difficult name to pronounce, is so
special.
But don't worry, Tiktakers, because in today's video we reveal this mystery for you.
Get a pencil and some paper to take notes because... here we go!
Schrödinger's cat is an imaginary experiment brought up in 1935 by the austrian physicist
Erwin Schrödinger, one of the founders of quantum mechanics.
This is the branch of Physics that studies small particles that form matter, like electrons,
protons or neutrons.
This experiment presents the following situation: we have a cat locked inside a box.
Inside the box, there is a particle with a 50% chance of splitting and activating a mechanism
that will release a poisonous gas in a given time period.
If the particle splits, the bottle with the poison will break and the cat will die.
As there is a 50% chance of this happening, the only way we have to know if the cat is
dead or alive is by opening the box.
But... hold on a second!
Even though logic tells us that the cat is already dead or alive independent of whether
we open the box or not, in the world of quantum mechanics, the cat is... dead and alive at
the same time!
Buuuuut... how is it possible that the cat is both dead and alive?
Isn't it more like we don't know what its state is as it is inside the box and we can't
see it?
Wel.. nope!
Quantum mechanics states that both results are happening at the same time, and the most
amazing thing is that... this has been proved in countless experiments!
One of the most famous is the Young's Experiment, also called Young's double-slit interferometer.
Imagine we have a cannon shooting marbles.
These marbles have to go through a wall with two slits to hit a screen afterwards.
If we keep shooting, statistics say that, approximately, half of the times the marble
will go through the first slit, and the other half the marble will go through the second
slit, leaving on the wall this kind of marks.
Logical, right?
Let's see now what happens if we shoot an electron, an element of the quantic world
that behaves in quite a different way.
We open the cannon, we shoot the electron and... this is what happens.
With this strange pattern, we can't distinguish which slit it went through.
So.. we are gonna place a detector on each slit that will let us know when an electron
goes through it.
Again, we shoot several electrons, the detectors activate but... the pattern has changed!
We deactivate the detectors, and the strange pattern is there again.
What does this mean?
Well.. sit back tiktakers!
Because... what this means is that in the quantic world, all options are happening at
the same time.
And it is only when we observe or act (by placing the detectors in this case) that the
particle choses one of the options.
And this is the same idea the Schrödinger's cat is based on: even though the animal is
dead and alive at the same time, we will only see one of the two options - when opening
the box, the quantic world choses between one of the two results.
This is something the author of this paradox found completely crazy - he never imagined
chance would have an influence upon the laws of physics.
So... don't be afraid to find out about the outcome in case the poor cat dies... because...
well... he would still have six lives left.