Experiments

Here’s the simplest explanation of Schödinger’s Cat Experiment: Schrödinger’s cat has a 50% chance of dying and 50% of living after an hour in an experimental box. While the cat is in the box, it is both dead and alive (Copenhagen Interpretation). You don’t know what you can’t observe. If you want to finally understand Schrödinger’s Cat Experiment once and for all, then you’re in the right place. Let’s jump right in! Schrödinger’s Cat Experiment Made Simple Nature Noon rarely dives into physics, let alone the bazaar world of quantum physics.  However, some quantum concepts are certainly worth knowing about, extraordinarily fascinating and straightforward to grasp. Easily, among the most famous quantum experiments was Schrödinger’s cat.  Without further ado, let’s dive into Schrödinger’s cat explained: WARNING: Don’t Attempt This Experiment Schrödinger’s cat experiment is what we call a thought experiment.  In other words, we don’t actually conduct the experiment. We use only our imagination and reasoning instead.  In fact, as we will later learn, it is truly impossible to physically conduct Schrödinger’s cat experiment, even if we wanted to. That being said, please under no circumstances attempt to conduct this experiment.  This article is purely to educate one on the purpose of the experiment, not to perform it. Among Schrödinger’s prolific, Nobel-Prize-winning career was his infamous cat experiment.  In fact, this benchmark experiment has been the subject of jokes, shirts, TV show episodes, and more.  However, Schrödinger’s cat experiment has been both misinterpreted and misunderstood over time.  Hence, this article’s simple approach helps us fully understand where brilliant Erwin was coming from. Schrödinger’s Cat Explained: The Experiment First, a cat is placed inside a sealed box for one hour.  Also, inside the box are: A container of radioactive material A Geiger Counter (a simple machine that detects radioactive particles) A hammer A container of deadly cyanide Using the correct radioactive material allows a precisely 50/50 chance that a single radioactive particle will be emitted within one hour.  If you are uncertain as to why radioactive material will do this … Radioactive Decay Refresher Radioactive materials contain extra energy and feel unstable. Therefore, to become stable once again, they release or emit some of this energy in particles.  We call this radioactive decay. Next, our Geiger Counter will wait for a radioactive particle to be emitted.  And, if it records a particle, it will let the hammer drop.  As a result, the hammer breaks open the lethal cyanide container, killing the cat. At last, when you open the box, the cat will either be dead or alive, depending on the outcome. However, before opening the box, the cat is both dead and alive.  In fact, this is the very purpose of Schrödinger’s cat experiment.  But, how could that possibly be? Schrödinger’s Cat Explained: The Results Basically, nothing about the matter is certain until we observe it.  In fact, this thought process is known as the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum physics.  In other words, simply looking at matter actually changes the outcome of what happens to it. Weird, huh? Indeed, that is why we proclaimed previously in this article that one could not physically conduct this experiment, even if they so desired.  You see, the primary focus of the experiment is that prior to observation, the cat is both dead and alive simultaneously.  Therefore, visually observing or monitoring the cat during its hour-in-the-box time would alter and prevent an outcome.  Trippy to think about, isn’t it? Realistically, yes, the matter could be at any place. But, the probability of the matter being at some places is much higher than in others.  For instance, a carbon atom in your diamond ring could be on the Moon right now. However, it’s much more likely that the carbon atom is on your finger. You can’t know where something is unless you see it.  Until you see it, the Copenhagen Interpretation says that the atom is there and is not there.  Until you see the particle, you have no idea if it’s there or not. This makes sense in quantum physics, but not in real-world physics. Actually, this very style of thinking was the purpose of Schrödinger’s cat. You see, while Schrödinger found such possibilities true for single particles, they would not be possible on larger objects, like cats. In fact, Schrödinger created his famous cat thought experiment to show how absurd the Copenhagen Interpretation was for larger objects.  What a character. Schrödinger’s Cat Explained: Conclusion Ok, we’ve just explained a lot.  But, to sum up, let’s break it down into three easy bullet points: After one hour in the experimental box, Schrödinger’s cat stands at a 50% chance of being dead and a 50% chance of being alive. But, while the cat is in the box, it is both dead AND alive simultaneously (Copenhagen Interpretation). You don’t know what you can’t observe. Schrödinger’s cat experiment was hypothetically used to show Schrödinger’s disagreed with the Copenhagen Interpretation for larger objects, like a cat.

Here’s the 10 steps explanation of the Double Slit Experiment in simple terms: With the Double Slit Experiment, you’ll discover that light has both a wave and a particle nature, and these are inseparable. Rather than being just a wave or a particle, light has wave–particle duality. Quantum particles and other electrons are the same. So if you want to understand the Double Slit Experiment once and for all, then you’re in the right place. Let’s get right into it! The Double Slit Experiment Simply Explained in 10 Steps This article deviates from the world we know altogether, but it is too amazing not to share.  We will look at one of science’s most fantastic and yet unexplained tests, the double-slit experiment.  This experiment, involving the behavior of light, dips into science’s most bazaar and least understood fields, called quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics seeks to explain behaviors on the smallest, sub-particle levels.  And, most of, if not all of our classical physics goes out the window at these levels.  Even Albert Einstein playfully referred to early quantum results as “spooky action …” #1 The Basic Setup Various things or materials are shot directly at a barricade with two parallel slits cut out of it.  The material will pass through the slits and project on the wall behind the barricade.  Different results are achieved on the wall depending on the type of material that is fired at the barricade.  Let’s look at some well-tested results: #2 Particles Particles, in this case, can be thought of as tiny pieces of matter, like small round pellets.  Some will be reflected if we shoot these particles at the barricade, and some will pass through the slits.  The matter passing through the slits will create a pattern of dot marks on the wall behind the barricade, like this: #3 Waves Waves behave much differently than particles.  Waves are essentially ripples in some type of medium, like waves flowing through water, for instance.  So, if a stream of water is used in the experiment, a single water wave will hit the barricade.  Then, as some of the water waves pass through each slit, they are split into two separate waves.  As the two waves travel beyond the barricade, they start to overlap, creating what is known as an interference wave, shown below. As the tops and bottoms of the two waves intersect, they leave a combination of lit-up and dark regions.  And, when these light and dark regions hit the back wall, they create a pattern of multiple stripes, like this: #3 Electrons Now, let’s shoot electrons, which are microscopic particles of matter.  We would expect that the electrons should yield results similar to the previously-tested particles mentioned above.  At first, they pass through the slits, creating a band of dots on the wall. #4 Quantum Weirdness Kicks In But, after shooting the electrons for a while, something bazaar starts happening.  Instead of two simple bands of dots behind the slits, several bands begin appearing.  The electrons are forming the same pattern as the wave! Electrons are particles, so how could this be?  The electrons even left dots behind the solid parts- and around the outside of the barricade, where they could not possibly land. This outcome perplexed physicists.  Initially, they assumed that the individual electron particles must somehow bounce off each other, creating the wave-like pattern.  So, they fired individual electrons at much slower rates to avoid any possible interference.  Yet, nothing changed. Even single electrons still created a wave-like interference pattern. The electron is left as a particle. The slits caused it to split up and interfere with itself like a wave.  Finally, it recombined with itself again to strike the back wall like a particle. #5 Observing the Electron Baffled by the unexpected results, physicists then set up a measuring device to closely observe which slit the electron passes through.  The results left them even more shocked. When measuring the path taken, the electron went back to behaving like a particle and simply left single bands behind the slits.  The interference pattern disappeared! Somehow, the act of observing the electron caused it to behave differently.  It was as though the electron knew that it was being watched and changed its actions. What does this mean? Though the quantum world is still wildly misunderstood, there are general concepts that we can comprehend. #7 Wave-Particle Duality We now understand that elementary particles can exhibit behaviors of both a particle and wave-like entity most, if not all. This concept is known as wave-particle duality.  Over time, this concept was discovered by brilliant physicists like Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie, and others. We saw this wave-particle duality occur during the double-slit experiment.  The electron left traveling as a particle, then split up to interfere with itself like a wave, then recombined again to hit the wall like a particle. #8 Probability Waves This is where things get odd and difficult to wrap your mind around.  On this quantum scale, the electron is not traveling as a wave or a particle. It is simply traveling as a probability wave, a sort of cloud of different possibilities. In other words, it is no longer accurate to ask the question, “where is the electron?” Instead, you would ask, “at any particular spot, how likely is it that the electron could be there?” No doubt, this is strange, and it seems extremely vague. Yet, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger developed a calculation to predict where the electrons will land, aptly titled Schrödinger’s Equation. Speaking of Schrödinger, his notorious Schröderinger’s Cat Experiment is explained here, but in simple terms. Essentially, we could never accurately predict where a single electron will hit the wall.  But, using Schrödinger’s Equation, we could find the electron’s probability wave.  And, finding this wave would allow us to quite accurately predict the probabilities of where electrons will hit the wall. This still sounds remarkably strange and subjective.  However, the truth is that these predictions have been tested time and time again, showing terrifically accurate results. #9 Additional Quantum Weirdness …

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