061 – The Cat Locked in the Box
Refers to "Schrödinger's Cat," a thought experiment
intended as a critique of quantum probability theories
proposed by Bohr and Heisenberg (the so-called Copenhagen
interpretation). Suppose that a cat was put in a box equipped
with a mechanism that would emit poisonous gas if a certain
radioactive material decays.
According to the Copenhagen interpretation, the micro-world
phenomena such as radioactive emission are probabilistic by
nature.
Therefore, in this experiment, as it is caused by one such
phenomenon, the life/death status of the cat itself ends up
being probabilistic as well.
This means the cat is both dead and alive at the same time.
No certain conclusion to its state can be made until the box
is open. The paradox embodied by that cute cat became one of
the prime buzzwords of the era that marked the birth of
quantum mechanics.-TIPS