jansesuI’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Boron Zone. It has a range of scientists studying all different topics. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
I can try. Quantum mechanics says objects such as photons can be in a superposition of two different states. For example, when you shine a laser at barrier with two slits in it, each photon is in a superposition of going through the left slit, and going through the right slit – and this is what results in an interference pattern on the other side. The funny thing is that you can’t say that the photon goes through one or the other at all – it really goes through both.
In principle quantum mechanics can be applied to macroscopic objects, as well as things like photons and electrons. So if you have an atom that is radioactive, after a certain time it will be in a superposition that is “decayed” and “not decayed”. Schrodinger made an argument that was meant to point out the absurdity of quantum mechanics. He imagined a sealed box with a cat and a single radioactive atom, that when it decayed it triggered the release of some poison. If you waited long enough that the atom was in a superposition of “decayed” and “not decayed”, then by inference the cat would be in a superposition of “dead” and “alive” – not one or the other, but both at once.
It is possible that there is some physical principle that says this is not allowed – but as yet we haven’t discovered it. So although it seems absurd to have a cat that is both dead and alive, in principle it is possible.
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