You know how when a fan is spinning at top speed and you can't see exactly where each individual blade is? The particles that make up atoms (quanta) exist in a state like that--smeared out in space and time.
One quantum theory says it is not just that they are moving too fast for us to see, they are in reality, spread out like that (a wave function).
The theory says they remain in this state until we observe them, whereupon they condense into particles in a particular place. (Kind of like sticking your hand into a fan to stop the blades so you can see each blade and exactly where it is.)
This theory about quanta, the building blocks of all matter, was fine and good until physicist Erwin Schrödinger pointed out that it doesn't make sense in reality. He asked what would happen if a cat was in a box that was set up to release poison and kill the cat if a quantum was fired at it and hit a certain spot. If quanta don't gel into particles and therefore are unable to 'hit a certain spot' until we observe them, and we fire one at the box, what happens to the cat before we make our observation? Is it dead or alive, neither or both?
He was saying that contrary to quantum theory, reality must exist independent of our observation of it.
However, despite Schrodinger pointing out the nonsensical implications of the theory, it to this day remains an important and accepted explanation for the behaviour and nature of quanta, a theory adhered to by the world's top physicists, many great mathematicians and countless rational scientists of many ilks.
Reality, therefore, does not condense out of the realm of all possibilities into one point in space and time until we observe it.
Very simply put, this theory is the scientific way of saying existence is mind over matter.
My first published novel, Schrödinger’s Cat, will be released in 2011 by Wolfsinger Publications. But, who the heck is 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?”
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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.
Schrödinger’s Cat by Eileen Schuh—a psychological crime thriller than spans two universes. Coming in 2011 from Wolfsinger Publications.
Stay tuned for more information on my writing career—and on Schrödinger’s nasty feline.
