Nadia Rahman's Learning Log 4

Name: Nadia Rahman                                  
Class: S1-01                          
Index Number: 04

Independent Learning Log 4

Week: 3
Date:  14th June 2016
Time: 7:30pm - 8:30pm

Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOYyCHGWJq4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWMTOrux0LM&t=75

https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1csq0o/eli5schrodingers_cat/

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Schrodingers-cat

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/superposition

What I did:

I was reading a book when the protagonist made a joke about Schrödinger’s Cat. I had heard about it previously but I was not sure what it referred to. I decided to watch videos on SciShow and MinutePhysics to find out more about it. ELI5 also provided different perspectives about the Cat. Lastly, I visited a few more websites to learn more about Schrödinger’s Cat.

What I learned:


I learned that a scientist named Erwin Schrödinger wanted to provide an analogy of a principle of Quantum Theory, superposition. The principle of superposition claims that while we do not know what the state of any object is, it is actually in all possible states simultaneously, as long as we do not look to check.

Erwin thought of a thought experiment which has a few versions now. The basic scenario is that a cat will be placed inside a box with either gunpowder or a sealed vial of poison. A condition will be then set to ensure that there is a possibility of the gunpowder exploding or vial breaking to kill the cat. However, we do not know until we look to check. To conclude, until we look inside the box, the cat is thought of to be both dead and alive.

The idea here is that the object can be in all of its possible states and there is no single outcome until it is observed. For the Cat, there is a 50% chance that your curiosity killed the cat.


Summary:

Schrödinger’s Cat is an analogy of one of the principles of Quantum Theory.