Schrodinger's Cat 1 & 2

According to classical physics we get to know something by observing it. According to quantum mechanics, it isn’t there until we do observe it.

Schrodinger’s Cat sums up the difference between classical physics, the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics and the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Schodinger’s Cat is a dilemma posed long ago by the famous discoverer of the Schrodinger wave equation.

A cat is placed inside a box. Inside the box is a device which can release a gas, instantly killing the cat. A random event (the radioactive decay of an atom) determines whether the gas is released or not. There is no way of knowing, other than looking into the box, what happens inside it. The box is sealed an the experiment activated. A moment later the gas has either been released, or has not been released. The question is, without looking, what has happened inside the box?

According to classical physics, the cat is either dead or is not dead. All that we have to do is open the box and see which is the case. According to quantum mechanics, the fate of the cat is not determined for us until we look inside the box. What happens after we look inside the box, however depends on which interpretation of quantum mechanics we chose to follow.

The Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics says that the cat is in a kind of limbo represented by a wave function that contains the possibility that the cat is dead and also the possibility that the cat is alive. When we look in the box, and not before, one of these possibilities actualises and the other vanishes. The cat is either dead or alive.

According to the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum mechanics, at the instant that the atom decays (or doesn’t decay depending on which branch of reality we are talking about), the world splits into two branches, one associated with the branch of reality in which the cat is dead and one associated with the branch of reality in which the cat is alive.

Acrylic and mixed media collage on canvas on board

Originals in a private collection in Hertfordshire

© Nadia Warner - this picture may not be used in any way whatsoever without her permission.