Schrodinger's cat thought experiment question

Is the cat actually in a superposition of alive and dead? or it is just an example to show how stuff work in quantum world?

Yes, you are right - the cat is in a superposition of alive and dead. Haven't you any friends you've seen in precisely that state? Well, seriously, if you not merely believe quantum mechanics but also believe in it, that is the view you have to take. John von Neumann, one of the early pioneers, certainly believed that. I don't think Schrodinger did, though, having read a biography of him. QM is really weird. One consequence of the Pauli exclusion principle is that if an electron, for instance, is forced into a certain quantum state here on earth and there is another electron somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy in the same state, it will instantly jump out of that state, so fearful is it of disobeying Pauli. Don't know what its punishment would be if it didn't - the sin of cosmic impiety is a very serious matter.

It is used to show how QM works and differentiate between the different INTERPRETATIONS (over 20 exist) of QM.

Google "Quantum Suicide/Immortality" where Schrondinger's Cat is used to differentiate between Many Worlds and Copenhagen.

What happens to the cat is widely debated. Since the issue cannot be resolved without violating Indeterminacy, we will probably never know. There are 3 general positions on what happens.

1. The cat is a macro entity. As such QM does not apply. ===> The cat is either alive OR dead. (Schrodinger’s position) We find out when we look.

2. The Copenhagen Interpretation of QM applies. ==> The cat is both alive and dead at the same time. The cat’s Psi function collapses to alive or dead when we look.

3. Many Universe Interpretation of QM applies. ==> There are 2 universes. In one universe the cat is alive. In the other universe the cat is dead. We find out which universe we live in when we look.