thaumaturgy
Well-Known Member
Lol, Shrodinger's Cat isn't really a thought experiment--it's more like a slightly schitzophrenic metaphor that the physicist uses that to me should be an inspiration for idiots everywhere trying to persue a PhD.
How can one person have such atrocious spelling and call others "idiots" in the same paragraph?
I mean who would think of using deadly toxins and dead cats in a thought experiment?
Well, when you paint it that way. Of course it is unlikely anyone would really have been provoked to thought if Schroedinger had merely limited the thought experiment to "spin" or some other more prosaic aspect. The fact that a living thing is used is to drive home the point on a macro scale. So "idiots" will be provoked to thinking about the larger issues. If you would like there's a nice summary on Wikipedia of the "origins" of the thought experiment (LINKY).
Here's what Schroedinger himself said:
One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.
It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a "blurred model" for representing reality. In itself it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks. (SOURCE)
The concept is a bit more detailed than merely torturing cats.
If guys like Erwin Shrodinger (or even Jack Kemp) can get a PhD, then anyone can.
I couldn't care less about Jack Kemp, but Schroedinger (that's how the name is spelled without resort to umlauts, in case you care to talk to us "idiots"), well, if you think him undeserving of a PhD, then I'll have to call you a troll.
Schrödinger had worked at Vienna on radioactivity, proving the statistical nature of radioactive decay. He had also made important contributions to the kinetic theory of solids, studying the dynamics of crystal lattices.(SOURCE)
And then something that surprised me about this doofus who proved anyone can get a PhD:
One of Schrödinger's lesser-known areas of scientific contribution was his work on color, color perception, and colorimetry (Farbenmetrik). In 1920, he published three papers in this area (SOURCE)
Colorimetry is certainly different from the other topics.
They are an inspiration to demented people and simpletons everywhere.
You are an inspiration to trolls everywhere! Anyone who can spell as poorly as you do and call others "idiots", "demented" and "simpletons" deserves the Nobel Prize in Trollery.
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