Category: Science Caturday

Yesterday, our friends at the Berkeley Science Review published “Behind the Science: Infinite Russian Cats: Part 3 of Several” by Daniel Freeman, which appears, at first, to be nothing more than an infinite series of subtitles. It turns out, however, to be an insightful post that explains the central challenges that the Schrodinger’s Cat thought experiment addressed, illustrated with a Science Caturday joke that may already be in Brian Malow‘s set. It also does an excellent job of explaining the fundamental weirdness of quantum mechanics:

What’s interesting, though, is that Quantum Mechanics is correct, and matter absolutely can be interpreted as existing in simultaneous states, up until being “looked” at—this formalism allows us to calculate all kinds of absurdly precise quantities about atoms and molecules.  Reconciling whywe don’t ever see alive-dead cats (that is, macroscopic objects made of trillions of atoms simultaneously in more than one state) with the notion that reality does really follow these rules (that is, microscopic objects being describable as existing in simultaneous states) is actually incredibly nontrivial. Continue reading “Observing Science Caturday at Berkeley”