Schrodinger's Cat Solved

First let me start with my conclusion.

The classical universe is a holographic projection of a quantum state.

Let's look at Schrodinger's Cat.

Schrödinger's Cat: A cat, a flask of poison and a radioactive source are placed in a sealed box. If an internal monitor detects radioactivity (i.e. a single atom decaying), the flask is shattered, releasing the poison that kills the cat. There is a supposed fifty-percent chance of this happening. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Yet, when we look in the box, we see the cat either alive or dead, not both alive and dead. This poses the question of when exactly superposition ends and reality collapses into one possibility or the other.

en.wikipedia.org...

Some say the cat is too big and warm to go into superposition, some say the Cat is in superposition until the observer opens the box and some say the Cat is an observer.

So let's remove the cat. Let's replace the cat with a can of red spray paint put inside a blue box. If a single atom decays, there will be red spray paint on the inside of the blue box. If it doesn't decay, then the observer will open the box an find a blue box without red spray paint.

These two probable states are in superposition on a quantum level. This means both classical universes are holographic projections or mixed classical states of quantum superposition.

The classical universe doesn't need to go into superposition because it's not an objective material reality but a subjective holographic projection or mixed state of a quantum superposition.

So the box and the entire classical universe is in a projected mixed state until 1 of 2 things happen.

A. Single atom decay occurs and there's a measured state of red paint on the inside of the blue box.

B. Atom decay doesn't occur and the Observer opens the box and finds a blue box without red paint.

The universe, the box and the observer is in a mixed state and on a quantum level, it's in a state of superposition until A or B occurs.

This also means parallel universes exist. Because on a quantum level both quantum states are projected mixed states until a measurement occurs.

So at the end of the day, we're holographic projections or mixed states of quantum superposition..

The decay of a single atom would not cause paint to leak from the can. It would take many atoms decaying in the same location.

Unless you had a can the had sides only one atom thick, and I don't think that is possible. I suspect the atoms would be unable to hold themselves together.

That doesn't really solve it though, you sort of just explained the theory.

reply to post by watchitburn


Yes it would, if the spray can is connected to the detector like the poison flask. In Schrodinger's thought experiment, single atom decay doesn't trigger the poison but detection of single atom decay triggers the poison flask.

reply to post by SpearMint


It explains it when you look at things like the double slit experiment or delayed choice experiments.

They show that measurement doesn't occur until the quantum state is detected. This is because entanglement isn't bound by classical space-time.

It has to be in quantum superposition until detection occurs.

...in layman's terms i'm living my own universe at the same time as you in a mixed quantum state or something?

or what

why can't we all just agree this is a bunch of energy and that's that for eternity

reply to post by yourmaker


It means you have to exist in parallel universes which is superposition on a quantum level and mixed states on a classical level.

So, you will decide to cut off your computer and go to bed or surf the net for a little longer.

Both states must exist in superposition on a quantum level and mixed states on a classical level until a measurement occurs.

Originally posted by neoholographic
reply to post by SpearMint

 

It explains it when you look at things like the double slit experiment or delayed choice experiments.

They show that measurement doesn't occur until the quantum state is detected. This is because entanglement isn't bound by classical space-time.

It has to be in quantum superposition until detection occurs.

Yes but that's the whole idea of the cat thing.

reply to post by neoholographic


"There is a supposed fifty-percent chance of this happening."

As in it either will or it won't? Or is there something to explain why this is at half odds?

Three marbles in a bag. One red, one green, one blue. I have a 50 percent chance of picking a green marble if I assume that it either will or won't happen ... but we know this isn't true.

reply to post by SpearMint


Not really.

If it was it wouldn't have been debated for so many years.

What happened is Schrodinger's cat was in superposition until the Observer opened the box bypassing the measurement of the single atom decay.

This occurred because we have knowledge now that they didn't have back then. Like putting classical objects into mixed states or the quantum eraser and delayed choice experiments.

So for years there's been a debate. Does the Observer collapse the wave function? The answer is no, the wave function is in a constant state of superposition. The wave function projects mixed classical states.

The question also arose, does the cat go into a state of superposition. No, it's in a projected mixed state.

Sorry, but you have merely restated the Schrodinger Cat Paradox, substituting red paint for the cat, without providing a satisfactory resolution of the paradox. Slipping in the redundant words "holographic universe/parallel realities" does not help, either, because you are adding to the problem two separate, independent interpretations of quantum mechanics, neither of which is shown to solve the problem.

It is not consciousness that causes the quantum state vector/wave packet to collapse, as the interior of the box could be photographed automatically as soon as its lid is raised. It does not need a HUMAN observer. This was a red herring introduced in the 1970s by adherents of the school of interpretation of quantum mechanics who proposed, influenced by New Age philosophy, that consciousness somehow magically caused the supposition of probability waves to collapse. But this implies that the collapse does not actually occur until the scientist looks at his photographs when they are developed perhaps weeks after the box is opened, up to when no one looked inside the box and the cat remained both dead and alive because no one had looked at it. This is ridiculous, of course, and demonstrates that conscious observation is irrelevant as the cause of the collapse of the superposition of quantum states into a pure state. The holographic model proposes that the universe is really 2-dimensional and its contents generated by information encoded on a boundary surface. This has nothing per se to do with quantum mechanics.

Not solved, just re-illustrated.

Schrödinger meant this to highlight a contradiction, one the TS seems to be highlighting?

Below I solve using more glib logic:

If the quantum averages over time ( i.e perceivable reality to us) are significant enough to form something ( i.e a cat) at the event (in the box with us putting it in their with the posion etc).
The collective Quantum Averages (the cat, us, the box , the poison etc) will excert more Quantum Interactions(Perceivable reality) than anything with less Quantum Averages (the Copenhagen Interpretation) at the event.

Cat 1, Copenhagen Interpretation 0 (OR 1... depending on your point of observation).

reply to post by neoholographic


so what your saying is

Originally posted by Jukiodone
Schrödinger meant this to highlight a contradiction

No. He meant it to discredit the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics because it violates common sense in asserting that a cat really can be both alive and dead at the same time until someone opens the box and takes a look.

Originally posted by GogoVicMorrow
Not solved, just re-illustrated.

Exactly, you havn't actually solved anything.

im curious how many cats died in the process of trying to solve this

Originally posted by anonodox
reply to post by neoholographic

 

"There is a supposed fifty-percent chance of this happening."

As in it either will or it won't? Or is there something to explain why this is at half odds?

Three marbles in a bag. One red, one green, one blue. I have a 50 percent chance of picking a green marble if I assume that it either will or won't happen ... but we know this isn't true.

edit on 27-11-2012 by anonodox because: I understand that this is for the purpose of the thought experiment but I just never quite got why ... no actual edit.

The atom has only two options, it either decays or it doesn't. So using an analogy with three marbles doesn't really apply. Due to the randomness of quantum mechanics the atom may decay at any given moment - now, tomorrow or in a thousand years.

So until we find a predictable pattern in quantum physics, the chance is supposedly 50/50.

I am no expert, but this I how I understand it. Hope I didn't butcher the science to much.

haha... Schrödinger's Cat

the observer has no influence on the experiment. If the cat dies it is dead, until observer sees it dead or otherwise.
this whole superposition thing describes just the leak of knowledge.
If you don't know you just don't know until you look at it,
but mathematics always have to solve a equation so you need some super symmetry or/and multidimensional imagination to solve the equation.

does the supernova exploded or not??
we will have the knowledge when the electromagnetic waves arrive here regardless if we look at it or not.
build an equation that includes that explosion you don't know about and you HAVE TO go to fancy superposition and multidimmentions to solve that equation witch will tell you,
yes... in this dimension it hasn't explode but in other it has, and if we will see it in our dimension it means we need another equation to solve this problem...

Originally posted by micpsi

Originally posted by Jukiodone
Schrödinger meant this to highlight a contradiction

No. He meant it to discredit the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics because it violates common sense in asserting that a cat really can be both alive and dead at the same time until someone opens the box and takes a look.

True, Schrödinger did pose this paradox as a criticism to the Copenhagen Interpretation.

But personally I don't think this thought experiment works. As we know from the double slit experiment, any measuring device should be considered an observer, so the cat will indeed be dead from the moment that atom decays, since there is a device measuring that and releasing the poison, same goes for the red-paint-theory.