The Geiger counter and cat’s body are observers that collapse the PSI Function for the system.We don’t know what happened, but the Geiger counter (If decay occurred, the Geiger counter took action to kill the cat.) and cat body do know (The cat died).The system is never “Indeterminate.......
OPINION: The whole issue is moot. The Geiger counter and cat’s body are observers that collapse the PSI Function for the system. We don’t know what happened, but the Geiger counter (If decay occurred, the Geiger counter took action to kill the cat.) and cat body do know (The cat died). The system is never “Indeterminate.”
I've read somewhere that some years later Schrodinger regretted using that analogy. It does little when you really think about it to explain the uncertainty principle he meant for it to explain. Instead if focuses on this poor cousin of Garfield's and his plight in the box. So we get a lot of questions like "is the cat...alive or dead?"
The thing about probability, which is what we are talking about, is that all possible outcomes are possible before the trial or event happens. When applied to location and momentum, two of the uncertainty factors, that's a lot of possible outcomes, each spread out over its own probability density cloud.
But you know what? The probability of being both alive and dead is zero. Those are mutually exclusive possible outcomes. So the best we can say about the furry friend is that the probability of it being alive OR dead is 1.00. And that's not very interesting is it?
The best we can say about Dr. S's cat is that we don't know if it's alive or dead until: 1. we open the box and check or 2. the smell gets so bad that it's clear the cat inside is dead.
it is an example. if you put a real cat in a real box and put real poision in with him...you can pretty much guarantee he's dead
