TED-Ed
TED-EdView full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/schrodinger-s-cat-a-thought-experiment-in-quantum-mechanics-chad-orzel
Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, posed this famous question: If you put a cat in a sealed box with a device that has a 50% chance of killing the cat in the next hour, what will be the state of the cat when that time is up? Chad Orzel investigates this thought experiment.
Lesson by Chad Orzel, animation by Agota Vegso.
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46 Comments
@SampleroftheMultiverse
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMAP Physics students looking for a STEM project may find this experiment simple enough to replicate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcrey5jHGzA&t=15s
The experiment may be used as part of their introduction to Quantum wave mechanics.
Professionals also might want to replicate it in their Labs.
Materials that are applicable to the process are relatively inexpensive and easy to attain.
Compression or tensile testing equipment with digital or data chart recorders are commonly found and used in mechanical testing labs.
Our experiment produces a visual representation of the probability amplitude for various energy levels.
In quantum mechanic's particles in a 2d box,
@IlyassLakhili-uu8fm
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMhow he knows i am wtching the video from my pc and not my phone 😐
@ManagementProfessor
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMThese videos are so good:]
@sakismiou
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMthe cat is equal parts alive OR dead, not alive AND dead.
@Paulakat517
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMWhat if all options are available both negative and positive and you don't choose you just focus.
@smilingtear
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMLet me be the cat
@purrbox7514
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMThis pops up once every few years in random conversation by people peddling weird pseudoscience. I know nothing about quantum mechanics, nor did I go to uni, but even I know that a cat will never exist in a state of superposition. Why? Because it's a cat, not a particle!
@theentangledperspective
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMNot so intuitive explanation. Expected better quality video from TED-Ed.
@herbertripka9844
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMIsn’t superposition merely a fancy word where we just don’t know what the state is yet? I.e., the cat is alive or dead. We just don’t know, until the lid is opened.
@CodieHolpp
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMThe comments are the best laugh I will have this year! 😂
@lukeasacher
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMMonty Python… Confuse-a-cat!
@fearitselfpinball8912
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMUnderstanding Schrödinger’s cat, in my view, requires at minimum understanding that…
1. It was a critique of something.
2. It functions on logic that runs something like this:
since we all agree that cats can’t be both alive and dead, therefore…
3. Lastly, the words ‘can’t be’ in the sentence above (and in Schrödinger’s critique) must be understood as ‘it’s logically impossible’ (and therefore physically impossible) not merely as ‘it’s counter intuitive’.
Without presenting these 3 basic features of the argument I doubt that the thought experiment can really be understood.
It wasn’t devised to clarify that Schrödinger was ‘philosophically disturbed’ but rather to show that, logically, something must be wrong with our understanding of quantum theory (even if the math works).
@jamesm28
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMSince you can't see me that means I'm both alive and dead and so are all of you. So is this comment coming from beyond the grave? There's a 50% chance…
@PraveenChristy-u5x
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMAustrians always get credit for ideas which has no connection to the truth just like Sigmund Freud.
@BennyNegroFromQueens
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMSo disturbing. IT MAKES NO SENSE!!!
@WalkingEnigma-b5i
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMWait but then the wave function is only provable for atoms and waves tho, that dosent prove his original cat box theory.
@YesIJohnFox
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMI have a simple solution to this problem… When an animal dies, it is possible to determine the approximate time of death, based on the state of decomposition… So If instead of opening the box after the device acted, open it 8 or 10 hours later… Even though one will only know the state of the cat upon opening the box, one will also be able to tell how long ago did the cat died based on the decomposition level, hence proving the cat's death was not dependent on any superposition state, it happened long before opening the box. 🙂
@reneybarra4646
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AM“WHAT’S IN THE BOX?”
Schrödinger: maybe your cat?
@TouhouMiravleMachine
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AM"Our cat; almost is dead" *_My cat😂
*Meant to be "-"
@SNOwyte
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMI saw wave pattern behavior on my cat when i was on acid
@lukeasacher
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMomg just found this after 10 years of your uploading- studied physics in hs at Oppenheimer's alma mater and until this moment, never properly understood Erwin's Dilemma. Thank you so much.
@rfeew
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMfirst time learning about this and its pretty crazy that this's how computers ended up being a real possibility
@KhaliunaaTumengerel
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMlovely!
@Harvey_Dent
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMYou lost me after cat.
@wellsfam700
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMNo just our knowledge of the cats life is unknown the cat is dead or alive before it’s opened
@alexanderizzard1254
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMSo he could have just put a quarter in the box then? Shook it up and no dead cat 🤣
@Six3rdy
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMBruh you gotta love this guy for being such a goat. He gave quantum mechanics one of its founding principles, then said "Phuck this schitt, I'm awt!"
@dannzingadreamwork3743
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMBut the cat observes itself before the box is open
@503neilunavailable9
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMYoungs double slit experiment it is
@gearhead-442
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMPut me in a box for an hour and when you open it I'll let you know you how dead I was
@ajai_p
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMSchrödinger's mark
You are both failed and passed in the same time until results out
@srigopalmukherji1897
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMToo complex for my atrophied brain
@bjarterundereim3038
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMTwo things:
1. Schroedinger himself saw this tought experiment as something of a joke. Ask Roger Penrose.
2. This is not a thought experiment to "prove" quantum theory, but to show the impossibility of it.
Then: Even as a boy (very young) I knew for a fact that I would not know what's in the chrismas present until I looked.
Likewise, a sensible scientist would place a sensor in the box, to find the time of the activation of the radioactive device.
Then he would know exactly at which time the cat would start dying.
Besides, it may be a punishable offence to kill cats in this manner without permission.
This fairytale called Scroedingers Cat, is just that. A fairytale to explain something absolutely different from what it really shows.
In advertizing, this would be called a misrepresentation of the facts of the goods.
Many parts of the quantum theories are like this. Are the so called scientists incapable of verbalizing their own findings?
@jaskiratsingh-ki7ps
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMSo cat is aladeen or aladeen?
@MiaBella-b4r
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AM@1:42 Lazarus effect
@JohnnyPillow
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMJokes on you im using my phone to watch
@mentalmickey1459
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMI think the cat is a bad example as it is not both alive and dead, it is one or the other but the information is not available.
@abdulhafizhmahfuddin4017
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMconst [cat, catDied] = useState({isLive: true})
@bryaaaaaaaan
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMicl this is bs
@Peter-ni2ql
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AM🎥📦↖️↗️↘️↙️↩️↪️🌌🧙🏻♂️🤷🏼🐆👉🏼🐘
@KO-lq1yo
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMSo you don’t actually know if you have to take a dump until you sit on the toilet. It’s “Dump Uncertainty?”
@babosawina7626
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMOkay, but if yhu wait to open the box, and open it after 7years, yhu would be sure that the cat is one state “dead” time will tell if we use the cat, will it work the same with the quantum particles??
@dogslife5853
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMbro explained class 12 nuclear physics in one video
@TheNin-Jedi
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMI don't blame Schrödinger for thinking this is bs.
@Higgsevents
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMsee what would make schrodinger know if the cat was alive or dead. as the video contains and says that there was a device that would make the cat dead. the device was radioactive, it would definitely make a sound when it will blast, if it would blast means that the cat is dead and if not cat is alive.
@RaptorInNewMexico
02/15/2025 - 1:21 AMI now get the cat episode on Rick and Morty. 😊