Schrodinger’s Cat
Prediction of Quantum Mechanics: If one does the experiment many times, when the box is opened 50% of the time the cat will be alive, 50% dead
Question: In any one experiment, what is the state of the cat before the box is opened?
Is the cat dead or alive before the door is opened?
Does the act of opening the door determine the cat’s fate?
Copenhagen Interpretation:
- The theory is about our state of knowledge of the cat, not about the cat.
- Before the box is opened there is no knowledge of the state of the cat. The cat’s wave function is in a quantum state : neither dead nor alive.
- Bohr says the theory is complete -- the cat is not in a definite state -- there is no definite external “reality” outside of our observations