What does it actually mean that Schrödinger's cat is both alive and dead?

Here's my answer to the question as posted on the Quora forum:

Schrödinger's thought experiment about the cat was indeed meant to draw attention to the absurdity discovered in quantum physics, quanta being the particles that make up atoms and particles of energy such as electrons and photons (particles of light).

Physicists were saying that until a quantum is observed and measured it exists in a quasi state of realty. It is only our observation and measurement of quanta that causes them to condensate out of all their possible locations into a single location in time and space and take their place in our world as either matter or energy. This notion was being accepted by scientists but Schrödinger thought we ought to be looking for an explanation that made more sense. Things either are or aren't, exist or don't, are here or are there--just like his cat has to be either dead or alive, whether or not we can see it.

 

To this day, however, physicists believe in and follow the Copenhagen interpretation of the nature of quanta and all experiments seem to prove that it is true-- at the subatomic level, matter and energy do not exist in a tangible state until we observe them. In an effort to make sense of this, physicist Hugh Everett came up with his Many Worlds Theory that hypothesizes that everything that can possibly happen, does happen--in a universe somewhere. Each quantum exists in every possible state in every possible location at every possible moment in time although we can only observe a single state.

What does this mean for Schrödinger's Cat? It means that reality splits in two the moment the scientist opens the box to observe the state of the cat. In one universe the scientist finds the cat alive and in another universe, he finds the cat dead. This supposedly makes more sense than having a cat that is neither dead or alive until it is observed.

This also means in a universe somewhere I won the lottery, and in many others, I don't even exist. Do we get to choose which universe we observe and inhabit? Can we communicate with alternate universes? Is fate, choice or circumstance creating our lives, our worlds, our universe?

Here's the link to the original question, my answer and others' answers on Quora

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Eileen Schuh, Author
DISPASSIONATE LIES
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

The Great Alberta Author Tour

Perhaps it was studying Arthur Miller’s DEATH OF A SALESMAN in high school that caused it—literature can have a tremendous impact on young psyches. Whatever it was, travelling about the country marketing my books took on  a sinister connotation...for unknown reasons. If you haven’t read about that phobia of mine, check out my post on the Famous Five Plus website. 

I predicted on there that the best way to overcome that irrational fear was to get out and do it—tour Alberta’s largest library system, from the southern most corner in the east to the northern most points to the west.

Although the tingle in my tummy tells me remnants of the fear linger, the fact I can sleep before and between my travel stops tells me I'm well on my way to overcoming it.

One third of the way through the 23-stop library tour and nothing dire or dreadful has happened during any of my journeys nor at any of my destinations. 

Like in my books, the settings of my travels contain symbolic clues about my reality. It’s not just the audiences I speak to, nor the workshops I give. Not the emails, or autographs. It’s watching the low October sun skim the horizon, the prairies change to forests, the brush of snow, the touch of frost, the harvested fields...an aging world approaching winter.

It’s discovering how active the oil industry is in what I presumed to be remote Alberta communities, how busy the ribbons of highway with construction equipment, tanker trucks, coach lines, and machinery of unknown name and purpose spreading out past the edges of the lanes led and followed by pilot trucks, their frantic “Wide Load” signs flashing. It’s pipeline crossing signs every few miles, fields of stubble turned dark by ditchers setting massive culverts into the ground. High tension power grids, encoded directional signs.

It’s earphones on and stories on my kindle set to audio—Mr. Robot Voice telling me of British romance, Canadian sasquatches and edgy horror. Gritty American teen. It’s 45 minutes into my travel and the directional sign advising 100 km to my destination—just one more hour.

It’s the young lad looking askance at the author photo on my book mark, wondering aloud why I’d since cut my hair, I looked much better with it longer.

The 13-year old who was certain I must write a sequel to my quantum computer SciFi that isn’t even out yet, and had it plotted for me within 10 minutes.

It was the girl who was not shy at all about telling me I was her hero and she has all my books in her room and asked what it’s like to be an author—do people come up to me and bother me for autographs?

It's getting thank you gifts like these from the Morinville Public Library

It’s finding others my age, who’ve always dreamed of writing a novel, seeking advice on how to make that happen. It’s the mother with the treasured manuscript of her daughter’s in her hands, wanting to polish it and see it in print. It’s the challenge of keep a classroom of adolescents attentive for an hour. (Here, let me show you another book trailer...)

It’s missing Hallowe’en with the grandchildren and the granddaughter’s birthday and the book club meeting and my curling team. It’s the interest in my stories, in the social situations they address, the appreciation of the potential positive effects my novels can have on teens. It’s talking about writing and reading and gangs and drugs and bullying and Hugh Everitt’s Many World Series...alternate universes. Death and dying and the true nature of time.

It’s ups and downs and deepening winter weather, the end of Daylight Savings Time and much more driving in the dark. It’s the pure joy on the faces and in the feet of the Pomeranians when I finally return home and the smile on hubby’s face. “How’d it go?”

It’s lunch on the road and forgetting my glasses and leaving my water bottle in the garage and not packing the power cord for my computer. And selling books. 

Wow. It’s a lot of things, most of them wonderful. 

****

The Great Alberta Author Tour was brought to you by

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Who's Schrödinger and what's with his cat?

 That’s what my hapless heroine asked when confronted with that phrase. It all has to do with quantum physics, believe it or not.

“Oh, I thought you meant cat, like pussy cat,” Chorie said.

"I do mean a pussy cat.”

“Quantum physics has pussy cats?”

Yes, quantum physics has a cat. A cat trapped in a box. A cat that is neither dead nor alive. It all started like this:

The tiny building blocks that make up matter, like electrons and photons, have dual personalities. Scientists can do experiments that prove these quanta are not particles but wave functions. Unfortunately for those of us who are rational, they also can do experiments that prove they are not wave functions but particles. Quantum physicists learned to live with the ambiguity and declared that it was the observation of these entities that determined which face they showed to the world.

Along about that time, Schrödinger said something like, “Wait a minute, guys. That makes no sense at all. Suppose you put a cat in a box and then you shoot an electron at it. Suppose the box is rigged to kill the cat if the electron turns out to be a particle and not kill it if it is a wave function. What happens to the cat until an observer takes a peak to see which face the electron showed us?”

Everyone went something like, “Oh, yeah. You’re right. There must be something wrong with our math. With our experiments. With our equations.”

Then along came Everett. And he said, “Wait a minute, guys. Your theory is correct because everything that can possibly happen does happen. Each possibility splits off into a new dimension. Schrödinger’s electron is both a particle and a wave function. The cat both lives and dies. The observer sees the cat both dead and alive. This is my Many Worlds Theory and it gets rid of Schrödinger’s troublesome cat and lets you keep your math and science and ambiguity. For in one world the electron is a particle and the observer finds the cat dead. In another world, the electron is a wave function and the observer sees the cat alive.”

Or something like that.

"A speeding bullet of a story..."

“Ever wish you could live two lives?"

"A psychological mystery of the first order..." 

"Chilling -- a fast and fascinating read! " 

"The zinger of an ending? It will knock your socks off! (Don't say I didn't warn you.)"

video clip http://ow.ly/hLw4Z

Purchase Link: Amazon.com

Eileen Schuh, Author
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

Science Fiction and SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT

Science Fiction, SciFi, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy...the genre includes an array of adventures from aliens and other worlds, to time travel and steam punk. Robots, artificial intelligence, metamaterials and quantum computers. 

SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT, my SciFi novella puts an ordinary family in a regular-type present-day world. Or, to be more exact, in two every-day worlds—an exploration of the implications of Everett’s Many Worlds Theory, which is a fairly solid theory in quantum physics used to explain the unusual behaviour of quanta, the tiniest known building blocks of which all matter is composed.

It is likely true, physicists say, that everything that can possibly happen, does happen. That with each option, choice, alternative that arises, reality splits. The original and all subsequent threads of reality proceed through time and space. Whether or not we, as humans, can access these other worlds is debatable. However...

SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT brought to you by WolfSingerPublications View the powerful new video trailer that introduces this "...speeding bullet of a story."

Custom filmed and produced by MindWave Studios

SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT: What the reviewers say--

“...like a good episode of The Twilight Zone" 

 

"Chilling -- a fast and fascinating read!”

"A psychological mystery of the first order..."

“...a mind-bending roller coaster ride”

"Oh, and the zinger of an ending? It will knock your socks off! (Don't say I didn't warn you). "

Eileen Schuh, Author
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

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