Alive and Dead...part 3

This was supposed to be the last post in this genre of sorts but due to the encouragement i have got from most of you, I intend to continue writing on related topics as long as i can. Plus it wouldnt be fair, if i spent soooo much time discussing the basic postulates and ideas of QM and only spend little time on all the weird things it predicts which is where ALL the fun lies :) (rubs hands in glee)
After i used the coin toss experiment as the example to state the basic ideas, i was asked by those who already had a fair idea of QM why i didnt use the infamous Schrodeingers cat example. Well i had my reasons. For one, i was saving the best for last and the cat is definitely one of the best :) and i did not want to confuse anyone (lol as if i have not already!!). I did plan to use the cat as the example to explain the basic ideas but then i felt it would be ironic to use the very thought experiment that the legendary Schrodinger came up with to ridicule the results we would get if we simply extended QM to the world around us.
Before I explain what the worlds most famous cat is all about, I need to tell you people about something called the Copenhagen interpretation. It is just how a bunch of scientists, notably Bohr decided to interpret QM in..well u guessed it..Copenhagen (these physicists arent very creative with names are they??). It is the most widely accepted interpretation of the ideas.In short its what I have stated already in part-2 but these guys decided to give it a really really cool name.
A quick review of what these guys said, so that u dont have to go to part-2 and recheck it: 1) if the 2 possible states of a system is X(like heads) or Y( like tails), then any in between state called the superposition is also possible(and there are infinite number of them!!)-->which is like both X and Y at the same time!! 2)the moment u try to observe/measure the system it will "collapse" and give you either X or Y only!! Cool??
The Schrodinger cat experiment is just an experiment to oppose the way the Copenhagen gumbal interpreted QM.Ok now this is how the experiment was setup (note: no real animals were actually used in the experiment!! lol its just a thought experiment like Einsteins box, Wieners friend and my personal fav Maxwells demon) Now lets say there is this big big box in which this experiment is going to take place. We are outside the box and there is no way for us to know whats happening inside until we open and see. Now inside the box there is a substance(lets call it chemical X...aah i do miss the powerpuff girls!!) ,a cat and a Geiger counter( which is just an instrument to measure radiation/light whatever..nothing fancy!!) which is connected to a gun or laser or bomb or poison or knife..ur choice, as long as it can kill a cat!! Notice i said just a cat..i will not mention live or dead cat, because i cant possibly know yet!! I am on the outside :) (cue on the outside by stained!! \m/ )...confused already?? read on...
Now lets say this chemical X is such that, it may emit radiation( light is very simple terms) or it may not. And the counter is such that if it detects light it will activate the poison gas and kill the cat and do nothing if it doesnt detect anything. So this basically implies if X gives out light, the cat dies and if it doesnt,the cat lives. Since X can be in a state where it gives out light or in a state where it doesnt, the Copenhagen interpretation implies that the chemical can be in any state between the two: a state where it is giving out light and not giving out light at the same time.
Now just extend this to the cat and behold what happens!! Since the cats life depends on chemical X, its in state "alive" when X doesnt do anything and "dead" when X emits light. Sooooo if X is in a state between those two, then so is the cat!! Its somewhere in a state when it both alive and dead at the same time!!
"Ooooohhh that sounds incredible!!! Cant i just take a quick peek in and see what an "alive and dead" cat looks like very quickly? I promise to make it real quick." Hmmm well go ahead, you can try but u wont be able to!! Why not?? Simple, the other part of the Copenhagen interpretation, you observing will destroy the system and what you will find is either a live cat OR a dead one.
Hmmm so what does this all mean?? That if we dont look, QM predicts that zombies exist?? :D Definitely NOT!! Like I said, it was just Schrodingers way of ridiculing the Copenhagen interpretation. Does this mean QM is of no real use to us?? Can it never be applied to the everyday world around us??Yes it can , QM can be extended to the world around us but it must be done properly. CM can be obtained as a special case of QM...hmmm let me put it in a better way...QM will behave a lot like CM when its applied properly. But because CM works so well for the things around us, it is in no danger of being replaced by QM. Trust me, you do not want to be calculating complex vector products and applying Hermitian operators if someone asked you to find the velocity of a something say a car...as tempting as it might be!! :)
But as we go to the smaller and smaller things, like my prof says, CM fails miserably!! and as out there as it sounds QM very beautifully explains all experimental results.
Anyway I have explained the Schrodinger cat experiment as simple as I can to the best of my knowledge. Like before, if you guys have any questions, hit me on gtalk or leave a comment and i will try and answer to the best I can. oh w8...or else u can BUZZ me :D lol its kinda nice...lets see if it catches on....

natesh
...solving a 12800x12800 matrix :(

ps: this post will definitely not be the last in this miniseries... there are a LOT more fun things to talk about :) trust me if u liked this, u will love what i have planned next :)