Schrödinger's Cat

Hello, Karstuhl here!

There is a story explaining quantum theory, about a cat in a box. It was first told by quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger, hence, the cat and the story is called Schrödinger's cat.

The story is very short. It is about a cat who is put in a box, together with a poison that is released by a radioactive substance. The probability that the cat will live when the box is opened is 50 %. In quantum physics, the tiny objects that make up the Universe is and is not a certain thing, until you observe it. While the cat is inside the box, by quantum physics rules, it is not alive, nor dead, but both alive and dead at the same time. This goes to prove that you cannot apply the rules of quantum physics on things of our normal size.

When I first heard about this story, I wondered why Schrödinger said a cat was put in a box. At first, I figured that he did not want to put a dog there, because he did not want to kill a dog in his story. Then it dawned on me, a dog is so much more reliable than a cat. You can trust a dog, but not a cat. Therefore, it fits the story that the animal put in the box is an animal that you cannot really trust. It would be much harder for the audience to accept a story where you could not say whether a dog was alive or dead, than a story where you could not say this about a cat.

It is good to be trustworthy. We dogs, who are trustworthy, would never be put in the box of Schrödinger's cat.