Schrodinger's Cat is a classic example of Paradox, in my view. In actuality, it was a Gedankenexperiment or a Thought Experiment, created by Austrian Physicist Erwin Schrodinger in 1935. Not many folks are probably aware that Schrodinger himself called that experiment “a ridiculous case.â€
Here’s the "Schrodinger's Cat" in Schrodinger's own words: “A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): In a Geiger Counter, there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none. If it (i.e. decay) happens, the Geiger Counter discharges and through a relay releases a hammer that shatters a small flask of Hydrogen Cyanide. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has (undergone) radioactive decay.â€
So you see, the cat's life or death truly depends on the formation of a subatomic alpha particle that triggers off the avalanche of electrons in the Geiger Counter. There is an equal probability that it may not happen, and hence the cat should remain both alive and dead per Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Philosophically speaking, Human Life is full of paradoxes, and we often find that the uncertainties therein bear a startling resemblance with Schrodinger's Cat experiment. The total randomness of events that shape our human lives, and determinedly control the outcome (i.e. future) can be extremely perplexing and equally thought-provoking as Schrodinger's Cat experiment....a pre-written and pre-destined Reductio ad absurdum perhaps!
Deodatta V. Shenai-Khatkhate
