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Schrödinger's cat: A thought experiment in quantum mechanics - Chad Orzel

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Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, posed this famous question: If you put a cat in a sealed box with a device that has a 50% chance of killing the cat in the next hour, what will be the state of the cat when that time is up? Chad Orzel investigates this thought experiment.

Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment raises deep philosophical issues about quantum mechanics, and physicists have been discussing it since 1935. Discuss some ways this imaginary experiment runs into problems with our everyday intuition about how the world works.

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Chad Orzel
  • Director Agota Vegso
  • Narrator Addison Anderson

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