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Schrödinger's Cat and Heisenberg's Cut


No, Schrödinger’s Cat is Not Alive and Dead at the Same Time

Schrödinger proposed we also place a ‘diabolical mechanism’ in the chamber such that, if the Geiger counter is triggered, a relay releases a hammer which smashes a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. In the event that the radioactive atom A decays, the high-speed electron e enters the Geiger-Müller tube, which is filled with low-pressure inert gas, such as helium, neon, or argon, across which a large voltage is applied. Schrödinger ends his 1935 paper with the observation: ‘The simple procedure provided for this … is perhaps after all only a convenient calculational trick, but one that today, as we have seen, has attained influence of unprecedented scope over our basic attitude toward nature’.

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Photo of Schrödinger s Cat

Schrödinger s Cat

Photo of Heisenberg s Cut

Heisenberg s Cut